Tendencies (RWBYxMe)
by BleachCadelina
Summary: WINNING STORY CONCEPT OF THE CROSSOVER POLL (not actually a crossover, is actually a self-insert) I die on a flight and wake up in Remnant. However, I'm not exactly alone. Read on and find out what I mean. As I try to make a new life for myself there, I need to learn how to fight and survive just as well as to maintain my sanity. Rated M for Language and sexual themes.
1. Wake Me Up Inside

The _one_ time I decide to try to fall asleep on a plane, this shit happens. I could never do it normally, and would always mentally mock the people around me because they were lucky enough to get some rest through the anxiety.

"I'm in a huge metal tube in the air," I muttered under my breath, hoping my father wouldn't hear me. "Gravity exists, how am I alive right now?"

 _Maybe because you're an idiot who doesn't really understand how airplanes work, probably._ I thought, mocking myself. Taking out my phone brought limited options: listen to music until my phone died, look at old pictures and videos for a while, or open my FanFiction App and read through my Downloaded Stories section. After a few moments of silent contemplation, I went with the third choice.

 _Wow,_ I said. _These stories aren't too bad_. I allowed my mind to look through them with a critical mind, doing mental corrections and noting techniques I could use for my own stories. I began to think with the serious notion of criticism. _This writer is really good at describing environments and appearances,_ I noted. _It's a shame his weakness is character development, otherwise this story would be perfect_.

I was literally shaken out of my reading stupor by some harsh turbulence, but everyone around me stayed asleep. I grumbled aloud, but not loud enough to wake up my dad next to me. _Ugh, I hate._ I said. In general, I just hated. I hated being up in this airplane for another eight whole hours. I hated the fact that I was stuck on this plane with my dad of all people. I hated the fact that I couldn't sleep away my anxieties like the rest of these people. I _hated how—_ then there was nothing.

 ** _._** **** **. . . .**

"Um, hello?" I called out into the darkness. I had been walking around aimlessly for a while, and had no idea what was going on until two… me's walked forward; one looked slightly skinnier and had a permanent smirk on his face and green eyes that shone with mischief while the other had deep blue eye behind glasses, but stood a little taller and looked to have more muscle mass than me. Then there was me, standing there with an average body, with black hair and dark brown eyes. "Excuse me?"

 _Yeah, sure_. The skinnier one spoke, his voice was a little higher, almost stereotypically punk-ish. Well, not spoke, his mouth didn't move. _Which one, though?_

"I could honestly tell you're both supposed to be me, but how and why?" I asked. This time the bigger me spoke up with a deeper, more refined sounding tone.

 **From what I could gather, we're dead**.

"Dead?" I repeat. "Like, I died in the airplane?"

 **Most probably, as we were in there last**.

 _We don't exactly have much other options as where to we died_.

"I don't need your sass."

 _Too bad, I am your sass_.

I didn't respond right away. What did that mean? "Explain, please."

 **Your mind was stressed out so much that you blacked out, almost like an overload.**

"Any that explains your existence… how?"

 **Well, we're you. Your most cognizant parts of your conscious mind, and as such, major parts of your personality. Upon trying to recover from whatever killed us, something must have triggered a way for us to exist as separate entities within you.**

"So instead of voicing my thoughts in your respective attitudes in my head," I deduced. "You've become separate beings in my head and can see what I do from here on out."

 **From what I can tell, yes**.

"What entity are you, then?"

 **Your critical side, I take up the serious, more profound topics and make it easier to expand for all of us to understand.**

 _And I'm the one with a sense of humor and imagination!_

"So a left brain, right brain sort of thing?" I said. They nodded. "Alright then—wait."

 **Yes?**

"If I'm dead, then why do I need you two?"

 **That… is a good question.**

 _It is pretty dark in here,_ Punk-me said. _Have you tried opening your eyes?_

"What does that mean?" I asked him/me. "I feel wide awake."

 _… Try harder?_

"Yeah, you're definitely my sass." Punk me laughed at my statement.

 **It doesn't hurt to try, I guess. Focus on waking up.**

"Alright." I closed my eyes hard and concentrated. Suddenly I could feel something soft on my back, almost like a bed. I opened my eyes and allowed light to flood my sight.

Once the sunlight ceased its assault my cornea, I saw that I was laying down on a bed. Sitting up revealed that I was in some sort of infirmary. A hospital would have had nurses and multiple other instruments around; this room only had beds and the basic vital sign-reading machines. Look behind me and to me left was such a machine, attached to my left arm through a series of tubes and sticky sensors. Apparently, a sensor must have alerted someone to my awakening because a nurse walked over to me from the side of the room, which was mostly blocked by my personal section's curtains.

"You're finally awake," The nurse spoke with a soft, motherly tone. Her soft pink eyes quickly glanced over my body for any signs of stress or discomfort. "How are you feeling?"

 _Wow, she is staaaacked_.

"I… uh," I was caught off guard by the punk side of me speaking aloud in my mind, let alone the fact that he was focused on another part of the nurse's body. I ended up shaking my head both to clear it and respond to the nurse. "I'm fine, nothing seems to hurt."

 **Oh, it appears we can speak to you directly when you're awake.** That's good to know, I guess. I'll have to get used to it later.

"Alright then," The nurse gave a small smile as she walked over to check on my vitals. I didn't really understand what the machine said, but I relied on her judgement to see how I fared. "Your vitals have stabilized and show no signs in dipping, other than an extremely large amount of Aura. You're clear to leave, but Ozpin really needs to talk to you."

"Alright." I immediately answered, completely used to being in hospitals and clinics for ankle and leg injuries and—

Wait, what?

 **Aura? Ozpin?**

 _Wait, does that mean…_

A familiar dark green-clad man with silver hair approached me with a small smile. His eyes examined me carefully as he walked up to my bed. Both voices in my head were absolutely silent. Now, I was a fan of Rooster Teeth, and loved their animated show, RWBY, more than most of its animated productions. I was not mentally prepared for what was about to happen to me.

"Hello young man," The familiar voice of Shannon McCormick greeted me. "Welcome to Beacon. How are you feeling?"

 ** _WHAT._** Both new mentalities responded in kind.

"I'm… fine." I said, finding a word that summed up how I was not feeling at all.

"What is your name?" The Headmaster of Beacon asked.

 _Karios_

 ** _Lukas_**

 _"_ Ross." I gave my real name.

 _Well, there goes that plan_.

 **Would've been a good start to have a change of name, being dead and all**. I ignored them and continued.

"I'm Ross. What do you mean by, 'Welcome to Beacon?'"

"You're in the infirmary of Beacon Academy." Ozpin pulled over a stool and sat at the corner of my bed. "You took quite the fall not too far from here, you know."

"From like, a cliff?"

 _Wow, really?_ I could feel him rolling his eyes. _A go at humor to lighten the situation?_

"The sky, actually." He clarified. **That seems rather appropriate, seeing as we died on a plane.**

"How am I here, then?" I asked.

"A team of students happened to be training close to where you were to land." Ozpin said. "You're very lucky to have encountered those circumstances."

 _I wonder what team it was. Please, please JNPR or RWBY._

 **I'm just hoping for any of them except CRDL.**

 _True, it would suck to be in debt to those assholes._

 **Agreed**.

"So… what now?" I asked Ozpin.

"How old are you, Ross?" He asked

 _Oh boy, here we go._

 **The question that so many OCs have been asked before.**

 _But… we're not gonna say no, are we?_

 **I think it's best to see where this path takes us, and wing it as always.**

 _That's a bit unlike you to say that, being the one for reason and all._

 **Then again, it's what we do best whenever we get lost doing anything.**

 _Good point._

I blinked hard to clear my head before I finally respond with, "I'm eighteen."

"Do you have anywhere to go, or anyone to live with nearby?"

 _Well, that's all rather convenient_.

"No." I admitted, a little sad at the idea that I was dead. There was nothing I could do about it now, though, so why would I cry trying to fight it? I have to come to terms with having left my lonely, single life behind, on the way to a liberal arts degree that would leave me with miserable desk job and no vertical advancement. In the end, there was really nothing to miss. I'll miss the few somewhat close friends, sure, but I was never really close to anyone, not even my family in the last few years.

 _That's even more convenient, Mr. Introvert._

 **We have no solid ties back home, what's slowing us down from trying to have an exciting life in the fantasy world we've read and dreamt about?**

The latter was right, I had no true anchors to my old life. I might as well try to live this new one to the fullest and make something useful out of myself.

"Have you any experience as a fighter, guns, and Dust?" Ozpin queried with a small smirk that told me he was planning something. However, he didn't know I would take that something with gusto.

"I can fight, and I've some experience with sniper rifles." I answered honestly. "I'm not too familiar with Dust, though."

 _Yeah, you're totally experienced after you only shot one that sniper rifle that one time we went to the shooting range, like five years ago_. I mentally dismissed the sassy comment to listen to what Ozpin said.

"If you are interested, we can enroll you as a student here." Ozpin said with a practice tone. "If you feel confident in your abilities, and truly wish to study to become a Hunter, your addition to this Academy would be greatly received."

"Why's that?"

"Your nurse mentioned you having an extraordinarily large amount of Aura, yes?"

I nodded.

"To be accurate, you have four times the normal amount of Aura, meaning you either have four souls, or are extremely lucky." Ozpin stated, causing my other minds to stir.

 _Four?_

 **I suppose the three of us added together have our own Auras, then a little extra Aura as a result.**

"A Hunter like you would be extremely valuable. Any sort of great amount, with the right training, can be translated into great strength as a Hunter. You have quite some potential as a Hunter, no matter what path you end up taking."

 _Sounds like he's a little suspicious of us_.

 **He did say we have a lot of Aura together. We could be a formidable foe if we train well. We are going to be on the force of good, right?** I mentally assured the both of them that I'd be on the good side here.

"Will you take my offer?" Ozpin asked. "It's completely up to you; it's your fate in the end."

 _How cryptically ominous of him to say that._

 **There's three of us now. That's three heads to deal with different problems at once. We have an advantage.**

I looked up to Ozpin after a minute of silent contemplation and said, "I'll do it."

My now-Headmaster extended a hand, which I took and shook, and said to me, "Welcome to Beacon, Ross."

 **(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Heyo, BleachCadelina here with the first chapter of the winning "Crossover" that was voted for." You all (6) voted the "crossover" of RWBYxMe over the ones with Fire Emblem and Pokemon. Oh well. Either way, I hope you like the premise of the story so far, and that you all like it in the end. Leave your thoughts and criticisms below! I'd love to know what y'all think! As always, thank you for reading!)**


	2. Establishing a Base

It had been about a few hours since Ozpin left the infirmary, and the nurse just left a wrapped package containing the Beacon Uniform and a pair of black shoes. They fit me perfectly, as I had given the nurse my clothes sizes.

 _I'm glad she didn't ask about our boxers' size_. Shift, as I had come to call the punk-ish sounding conscience, said. _She would have been rather disappointed_.

 **** **I don't want to know what you mean by that,** Stoic said. I internally agreed with Stoic, as I felt rather insulted by Shift's comment.

Ozpin had also left me a golden Scroll, which was provided to all Beacon Academy students. As I slipped the device into my new pants' front pocket, I had to check on something. I was given a wallet, but no ID card. Maybe I had to sign up for one?

 **We could go ask Ozpin.** Stoic suggested.

 _We're in a futuristic fantasy world. it's probably just tech-based!_ Shift shouted, as if it was the obvious answer. To be fair, it made sense. I pulled out my Scroll, and sure enough, it turned it on and was met with a blank student identification page. Clicking on a greyed out Avatar Icon, the Camera app activated facing me. For the first time ever, I took a selfie. I gave a small, hopefully friendly smile, tapped the capture icon, and saved it as my ID picture. I shrugged; I looked alright, so it should suffice. Then came my name.

"Ross…" I contemplated was my last name should be.

 _It should definitely something cool or badass._ Shift suggested.

 **No, he should at least pick a name that doesn't draw too much attention.**

I couldn't keep my last name here, it didn't have much of a sentimental anchor for me, as well as act as a bitter reminder of what happened; I still had my first name for that. I wanted a name that meant something to me. A name that could define what I could become.

"Ramsey." I said with finality, and typed it in.

 _Ross Ramsey? What, after Geoff?_

 **Not necessarily. Old English roughly translates Ramsey to mean "island." And here we are, three souls in one body, like inhabitants of an island. Though, Geoff is quite the… interesting influence.**

I didn't like thinking of my body as a vessel or an island, but Stoic's logic made sense. We would share this body through three separate consciences. I was really thinking of the more royal origin, the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses. Although, the Old English translation to "island" did tickle the small part of me that liked working toward an English degree, and Geoff Ramsey himself was a man that few men could match, and few people I knew could match his vigor or liver!

 **That's the spirit!**

 _Nerds_. _At least Geoff's last name sounds cool._

 **You're us, therefore you are also a nerd.**

 _I'm infected! Dear Lord or whatever Remnant Deity there may be, cleanse me of this curse!_

I chuckled quietly at the sarcastically dramatic response from Shift as I filled in the rest of the ID page as best I could: My name, age, and phone number (automatically provided on the Scroll) were filled in. I was also given a dorm room number already, though I wasn't sure how I'd get to it.

 _Oh man, maybe they'll provide you with a foldable map or something in this super futuristic, sci-fi fantasy world_.

"The sass wasn't necessary, Shift." I muttered, hoping no one was really listening. As per his accurate, albeit sassy, remark, I exited the ID page and searched around my Scroll's menu until I found a map of Beacon. It easily outlined the school floor by floor; I wouldn't get lost on my first day, unlike my first days in high school and college. My stomach growled loudly, and coincidentally, the nurse came by.

"That's a coincidence, I was just about to let you know you're officially discharged and able to start attending classes." She said, a motherly smile on her face.

"Thank you, ma'am." I nodded in gratitude.

"Now, go on out and get some lunch," She then instructed sternly. "You need to refill on some proper nutrients, immediately."

With that, she promptly kicked me out, and I was left to my own devices to find the cafeteria. With my Scroll, I was able to find the large dining hall in about ten minutes.

 _Wait a minute_ , _I have a serious question_. Shift suddenly said, just as I was about to enter the large room. I stepped aside to let other students pass through, keeping out my Scroll to create the illusion that I was busy texting or reading something.

"What's up, Shift?" I muttered, eyes glancing to either side of me for eavesdroppers.

 _Are we even in the timeline of the show?_

 **That… is a good question. The map on our Scroll says nothing about the Vytal Festival grounds nor Amity Colosseum are mentioned. Look around, Ross**.

I did so, and looked around for any signs of where in the RWBY webseries' timeline I was. Finally, after walking a few feet into the cafeteria, I saw a large banner hanging from the ceiling, which was very similar to the short-time-only Vytal Festival poster Rooster Teeth sold for a while to advertise Volume Three.

 _Volume Two it is, then._

 **Seeing as there was no sign about going out to attend the Festival, we may be anywhere between the start of Volume Two and the start of Volume Three.**

Turning my head revealed another hanging banner, this one advertising the ball Beacon would have in Episode 7 of Volume Two. That is, if the school wasn't too lazy to take down informative banners after the respective event happened. That last though caused the Student Council member in me to twitch in mild annoyance.

 **That leaves us sometime after Ruby learn Penny is a robot, but before that incident on the train from Mountain Glenn.**

 _And Zwei's fireball. And Neo_ 's awesome train scene.

A moment of silent contemplation passes. Then—

 _OH HELL YES, NEO!_

 **Shift, while it is nice to know we live in the world as our favorite character, we can't just go out and find her. She might as well kill us.**

 _That's… true. But I at least want to hang out with her!_

"I never played a Paladin, so I'm personally okay with trying to get a little _friendly_ with Neo. Or Emerald." I muttered quietly, approaching a food line and gathering a burger and fries on a metal tray.

 **That's because you think they're cute.**

"Because they are. Mostly Neo, though." I answered as I walked around the room, looking for a free seat. It was just about one in the afternoon, and students were flooding in for lunch. I ended up sitting down at a tablet hat remained empty as the masses piled in and performed their lunchtime rituals: pick-up food, find their friends, sit down, and chat amicably with one another.

 _This is just begging for people to talk to you_.

"While that is normal in crappy cliché anime," I muttered to Shift. "I have some hope that I won't have a protagonist-like fate. This isn't anime. This is real life, now."

 **That also mean you can die again. Which is why trying to meet Neo is absolutely not something we can afford to do right now. Or at all, if we can help it.**

 _But her LEGS, though._

Stoic was right, really. This life will be a productive, yet super dangerous life; I can't just risk it but trying to live it like I was in Second Life. If I die here, there's no telling if I'd be so lucky again and resurrect in another fantasy. I was brought out of my stupor when four pairs of footsteps came my way. Turning, I saw that it was my favorite team: Team JNPR.

 _S-she's alive! She's alive, someone pinch me!_

"Do you mind if we sit here?" Pyrrha Nikos spoke. Pyrrha _fucking_ Nikos (Shift added that for emphasis) was talking to me.

"Y-yeah, sure." I scooted over, despite already sitting at the end of the lunch table bench. Jaune and Ren sat on my side, and Nora and the Mistral Champion sat opposite of the boys.

"I've never seen you around here before," Jaune said, speaking directly to me. "Are you new here?"

 _Yes, Miles._

"Yeah, just got admitted today." I admitted. It wasn't a total lie.

"That's weird, to be admitted in the middle of the semester." Ren said.

 **Neath's voice? Interesting. I always did personally prefer this voice to Monty's**. I took a second to pay quick respects to the departed talent before continuing to respond with an alibi that wasn't a full on lie.

"I was out exploring for most of my personal training," I said. "I recently came to Beacon, but ended up with a hard landing."

"Oh that's right!" Pyrrha spoke up this time. Nora was content to listen as she scarfed down muffins and burgers. "Ruby and Yang mentioned that they managed to catch a young man falling from the sky over the Emerald Forest! That was you?"

"Guilty…" I shrugged and scratched the back of my head. I had no solid way to explain that. I gave a small smile as I said, "I like to make an entrance?"

 _Awesome, so RWBY saved us?_

 **We should at least thank them for doing so, when we have the chance.**

"Some entrance, buddy." Jaune said. "Glad to see you're alright."

 _Aw, thanks Miles. That actually means so much coming from you_.

"Thanks, um…?" I let the question lay in the air.

"Oh!" Jaune caught on immediately. He pointed at himself before gesturing respectively to his teammates as he introduced them. "I'm Jaune Arc. These are my teammates: Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Pyrrha Nikos. We're Team JNPR!"

"Nice to meet you all." I nodded my greeting. "I'm Ross Ramsey."

 _And I'm so glad to see you all smiling and not dead!_

 **Shut up, Shift.**

 _Sorry, the salt dig into wounds so fresh._

"If you don't mind me asking, Ross," Pyrrha began. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen." I answered honestly.

"So you're a second year by that technicality." Said Ren. "You must have some really good training to have been accepted to Beacon so late."

"I had to recover from previous injuries first, actually," I lied once more. Ren looked to me to explain. "I've hurt my left leg and ankle more times than I'd like. It gets slower and slower each time for me to recover from it. I'm doing my best to learn how to keep it healthy."

 **That wasn't a lie, at least.**

 _Especially since you would hurt, roll, and/or sprain your ankles almost every month back in high school playing full-contact basketball._ I mentally rolled my eyes at the memories of going all out in gym class for no reason resurfaced.

"I suppose that makes sense," Ren said, picking at his food. "It's good to see someone who's gone through many injuries still have the drive to become a Hunter."

"Thank you." I responded.

Lunch after that was a mix of polite small talk at my expense and the consumption decent food, much better than normal school lunches back home. Made sense, I guess; gotta give the future heroes of the world their nutrients. After a while, Nora and Ren departed, saying they were going to do some training in the gym.

"Do you have a team, Ross?" Pyrrha asked me. She and Jaune had been taking their time while they ate.

"No," I answered. "Ozpin just said he would admit me into the school. He never said anything about joining a team."

 _It's not like we have a team of three already here_.

 **Three minds, not three bodies, Shift**.

 _Yeah, but three heads versus just one head, you know the saying!_

"Well, if you ever need anyone to train with," Jaune said. "You can call us! Wanna exchange Scroll numbers?"

"Sure, just put your number in." I pulled out my Scroll and handed it over to him, allowing him to put in both his and Pyrrha's numbers.

"I think it would be quite grand for you to join us for training once in a while." Pyrrha said. "Especially since we don't have many second year friends to begin with."

 _We don't even have proper training! Even Jaune, let alone Pyrrha, could kick our ass_.

 **That's why it's smart for us to have some friends to train with. So we can learn how to defend ourselves in this world.**

"We actually have a long free period right now," Jaune said. "You wanna join us and train?"

"Uh, if I don't have class." I shrugged. "Though, I don't know how to check that."

"It should be on your Scroll, Ross." Jaune explained, munching on the last of his fries. "There's a schedule app that updates every week. It even shows days off and holidays." True to his word, I found the app and saw that I had Grimm Studies in fifteen minutes.

"How do I get to Grimm Studies from here?" I asked.

 _Ryan Haywood, we're coming for you!_

 **(AUTHOR'S NOTE! Hello all, BleachCadelina for you with the second chapter of this fun little side project of a "crossover/self-insert." Thanks for reading as always. Chapter 3 might not come for a while. I'm an English Major taking FIVE FUCKING ENGLISH CLASSES.**

 **Save me.**

 **Any way, hope you enjoyed the first two chapters of this story! See y'all next update!)**


	3. Feeling a Bit Shifty in Here

_Head… spinning… too much… information. Ryan, Milord Mad King, please have mercy on my poor mind!_

 **It's really not his fault you don't understand such difficult lectures, Shift.**

 _ROSS IS BARELY UNDERSTANDING ANY OF THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW, STOIC_.

"Hey," I muttered under my breath. "I'm trying, alright? I'm taking down the more important sounding notes."

 _Yes, because those two tidbits about the "ticklish" sides of a Boarbatusk are totally helpful._

 **That means their sides are softer, thus much easier to cause massive damage to.**

"Thank you, Stoic." I muttered. I looked around, making sure no one else in Port's classroom heard me supposedly talking to myself. Thankfully, I had chosen a seat in the back corner of the class, so I was rather far away from the rest of the class. Like the show had depicted, the classroom was a bit like a band shell, in which the seats went up along an incline so that we all had a decent view of the teacher. However, Port was just draining my very soul to live and committing mass murder of precious oxygen.

 _Hey guys, let's talk about vidya games! I'm Ryan the Rye-bread Ry-man Haywood!_

 **Shift, I'm going to need you to calm down. You're distracting Ross from taking proper notes.**

I wasn't distracted, I was just waiting for Port to end his current ramblings about his adventures in the Amazon-like swamps of Mistral and his encounters with the Amazons he apparently had the "pleasure" to meet. I was vigorously doodling a spiral in the corner of the piece of paper I was taking notes on.

 **Don't forget to return that pen to that student when you're done.**

 _Yes, dad. Do you want us to pick up some milk on the way back?_

 **. . . . .**

Soon enough, I was free from the fatally boring class and returned the pen to the student from whom I borrowed it. I folded up the paper I took notes on and put it into my pocket. Glancing once more at the schedule on my Scroll, I saw that I had only one more class left: Combat Practice.

 _That's gonna be a bad time, ain't it? Are ya ready for a bad time, Ross?_

 **Just hope that we don't get called on.**

"Thanks for jinxing it, Stoic." I muttered, following the map provided on the Scroll to reach my next classroom. "I'm a new student, I'm almost guaranteed to have an introductory fight here."

As I walked through the halls, I looked around at just how boring the decorations were. The walls were the same red and brown throughout the halls, and the light sconces did little to make an aesthetic impact. Why that bothered me so much, I don't know.

Within minutes, I found myself entering the very room in which Glynda Goodwitch would allow students to brawl and finish each brawl with critical comment or two. Much like Port's classroom, it was another band-shell classroom, except the lecturer's space was much, much larger to act as an arena space. Standing with the tall blonde instructor was Pyrrha, fully armored, who gave me a kind smile upon meeting my wandering gaze. I waved back.

 _Since we know we're in the actual series timeline, we CANNOT flirt with a main team character!_

 **For once, I agree. Try not to get too friendly with RWBY or JNPR, Ross.**

"Wasn't exactly planning on it." I muttered. I looked to my left to see the rest of Pyrrha's team, talking animatedly. "Wait, so Pyrrha's fighting? That places us…"

"Will Team CRDL please join us in the arena?" Goodwitch called out, and the class was immediately silenced.

 _Damn, mistress Goodwitch, You scary. Rowr!_

 **No, Shift. Just… no**.

"Agreed." I could feel Shift wither a bit from me and Stoic scolding him. "I don't even like blondes."

 _New life, new things! Can't just stick with one hair color the whole time! We're in an anime! Get yourself some rainbow in your life!_

 **You are making it very difficult for me to think you're a reliable source of mental support.**

 _I was never meant to, Stoic. I'm the side of Ross that sarcasm and deep desires control._

"Left brain, right brain," I reminded the voices in my head. "We went over this, Stoic."

All the while, Pyrrha was absolutely demolishing Team CRDL with a vivacity that was just so satisfying to watch. She fought with an elegant professionalism, an evident result of her champion training. I could see Jaune smiling as his teammate came out ultimately victorious. Then, a scene I almost forgot happened.

"Would anyone else like to volunteer before the arranged fights?" Goodwitch asked the class. A familiar, black-and-silver-clad arm rose.

"I would." Mr. Smirk-Master himself, Mercury rose to his feet.

"Alright, then." Goodwitch replaced the holographic display with a blank one, showing Mercury's face. "Would anyone else like to—"

"Actually," Mercury cut her off before pointing to Pyrrha. "I'd like to fight her."

"Hmm," Goodwitch looked to the girl beside her with pleading eyes that didn't exactly translate. Pyrrha took a moment to think; she barely lost any Aura in the fight against CRDL. "It's quite alright, Professor."

The blonde instructor's lime green eyes scanned the class until her steely gaze met mine and… oh no.

 **Oh no.**

 _Aw, shit._

"Actually, Miss Nikos, proceed back to your seat." Goodwitch said. I saw Mercury's fist clench; that's not the plan he had. "I believe we have a new student. Mister…" She looked down at her pad to check who I was. "Mister Ross Ramsey, please join us down here."

"You got this, Ross!" Jaune cheered as I got up and went down the stairs. I just gave a meek smile and thumbs up in response.

"Uh, I kinda don't have any weapons on me…" I told Goodwitch once I reached the arena floor. She waved a hand dismissively.

"Ozpin made me aware of your situation." She then gestured to the changing rooms. "There are weapon stores in the back of the changing rooms. Take what you need." I nodded and went in the way she pointed.

The changing room was lined with tubes that the rocket lockers supposedly slipped into when summoned. I continued to make my way to the back, to a door conveniently labelled, "Weapon and Armor Cache." Upon entering, I quickly ran over to the most basic armor that I was used to: hardened leather greaves that extended into fingerless gloves. It looked a little incomplete, so I decided to complement it was leather shoes that had extended portions acting as shin guards.

 **Well, that's as close to the Tae Kwon Do sparring gear that we're used to.**

I looked around desperately for something that could give me an edge over the experienced assassin. Something that could give me some well needed distance against him. Then, a certain locker passed my vision.

 _Go back! That locker looked important!_ Indeed it was, as its label read:

AURA-BASED WEAPONRY, USE AT OWN DISCRETION

 **We have a lot of Aura, as Ozpin and the nurse said. We can risk testing how this might work.**

Pulling open the doors, I was immediately drawn to the first weapon I saw: a pure white sniper rifle.

 **Seeing as we actually have experience using one, we might as well take it**. Pulling the weapon down, I inspected the whole thing. I tried to recall what the military officer said about the gun. Pulling it up and leaning the stock on my inner shoulder, I looked down the sights at the far side of the room. I did a flicked the safety off and pulled the trigger, and was instantly rewarded with a bullet firing at high velocity, leaving a decent-sized hole in the wall. After further inspection, I saw a button on the side that I felt was unusual. Upon pressing said button, the gun's barrel shortened drastically and the scope lowered to become iron sights. With a quick squeeze of the trigger, the gun sprayed five bullets out.

 _When I was a little boy, I had a fear of spiders…_

 **You did play as Widowmaker the most.**

"Okay, but this isn't a game!" I whisper-yelled back, clicking the button to turn the gun back to sniper. I turned back to the locker to grab a few more ammo magazines that were just below where the sniper was displayed.

"Anytime now, Mr. Ramsey!" Goodwitch's voice called out by the door. I sighed an exited the changing room to see Goodwitch raise an eyebrow at my weapon choice. "Are you sure about that weapon, Mister Ramsey?"

 **We don't know what it means by Aura-Based¸ but it doesn't hurt to at least try to fight in general.** I nodded in response to our instructor's question. I walked to the middle of the floor to stand opposite of Mercury.

 _I really, really want to wipe that smirk of his face._ I did too, but I doubted I could do so with the experience I had. Rather, the lack thereof. I did know how to pull a trigger and aim. Kind of.

"Ready!" Goodwitch called out. Mercury shifted into a fighting stance. I raised my sniper rifle with both hands, trigger finger ready. "Begin!"

Mercury rushed at me at high speed, as I pulled the sniper's trigger. He dodged the bullet easily and kept running at me, causing me to click the button and have the sniper turn in the machine gun form. I held the trigger down.

 _Spray and Pray! Take out this smirking assface out, Ross! He fucked with Yang!_ Shift's own anger fueled my mind in a way that made me feel angry as well. The sporadic burst of bullets caused Mercury to step back. Looking up at the holographic display, I guessed that a few bullets landed, as Mercury's Aura had gone down by a few ticks. Bringing my attention away from the fight to examine the board was a bad idea on my part, as something hit my chest. More accurately, a well-timed kick to my chest from Mercury sent me flying onto me back. Looking to him as I got back up, his smirk and cocky demeanor remained; his simple attack hurt quite a bit, also taking down a bit of my Aura down.

 _That's it! Let me at 'im!_

 **Calm down, Shift. You're effecting Ross' thinking.**

 _Grrr…. C'mon Ross. You can do this._

I shot a few more bullets at my opponent, who dodged them easily with a forward lunge. I squeezed the trigger again…. But nothing came out. Mercury jumped up, with an axe kick primed. Out of instinct, I raised my hands, and with it, the sniper rifle. The brunt of the axe kick was taken by the rifle, but my guard was knocked down, allowing Mercury to get another kick in through a wide opening. I watched as his roundhouse flew in from the side to slam into my face and send me flying again. I looked up from the ground to see my Aura was now down to half.

 _Argh, I'm tired of watching us get kicked around by this asshole! Let me at him!_

"You really think you can do better?" I muttered under my breath. "Be my guest, Shift!" Suddenly, I felt a harsh pull at the center of my chest and then I was sitting on… a couch in front of a television set?

 **Ross?** A familiar voice sounded much, much closer. I turned to my right to see the bespectacled version of me, Stoic, sitting beside me with popcorn in his hand. **Is that you? What happened to Shift?**

Looking to the television screen in front of us, I saw my perspective, but not my perspective.

"Uh, Ross?" Shift's voice muttered, his sound echoing throughout the area we were in. "This isn't a gun anymore."

True to his word, the gun I was holding just moments before was now a pair of long, vicious-looking daggers. They had jagged edges that were sure to hook onto the entrails of stabbed enemies.

 **Well, Shift.** Stoic said. **You have control now, apparently. You wanted a piece of Mercury, right?**

"Right…" Shift said.

 _"_ You got this, Shift!" I called out. Looking above the screen was my Aura level, which was refilling quite quickly. I could hear gasps from the audience through what looked like speakers on either side of the couch.

 **Fight, Shift.** Stoic said. **Fight and try not to get too hurt, please.** Shift's/My perspective turned to Mercury, who looked quite confused now.

"With pleasure." With that, Shift gripped the two daggers in his hands, stood up, and dashed straight at Mercury with a flurry of slashes and punches. However, before Shift could land a single hit, Mercury jumped back a long way and raised his hand to get Goodwitch's attention.

"I forfeit." He declared, causing Shift to falter in his steps and come to a full stop.

"What?" I asked no one in particular.

 **Well, he did do that in the show as well.**

"Why?" Shift asked his opponent, his rage still quite obvious.

"Your Aura just recovered almost immediately, man." Mercury pointed. "That's just not fair."

"While I'd normally rather not interrupt a fight in this fashion," Goodwitch cut in. "He is correct. It is completely unfair, in the competitive sense, to allow one fighter to fight another with the ability to recover a large amount of Aura as you did." Shift's arms dropped to his sides at this remark.

 **In that sense, she's correct. This new development of ours is quite unfair in terms of a contest. Our ability seems to be quite the interesting one, and will be most useful in a fight.**

"Does that mean I can send you out to fight as well?" I asked Stoic.

 **Only time and training will tell. Uh, Shift…?**

"Yeah?" Shift muttered irritably as he watched Mercury ascend his side of the stairs, as well as walk up back to our own seat.

 **Relax and let Ross have control again before you snap, okay?** Shift sighed before nodding, and another pull at the center of my chest and suddenly, I was physically sitting in my seat and in control again. The daggers now lay as a sniper once again on the desk in front of me.

 _That was… kinda weird. We can take turns in fighting and recover while another one of us fights with renewed Aura? That DOES sound pretty broken._

 **Truly. We need some isolated practice sessions to really see what we can do.**

 _What do you fight with, Stoic? I got some cool daggers, whaddya got?_

 **I'm… not quite sure. I assume we'll find out when we train. Hopefully sooner rather than later.**

"Mr. Ramsey," Goodwitch's voice caught my attention once more. "Please come down once class is over. I wish to speak with you." I nodded and put my head in my hands in an attempt to grasp at what just happened.

 _It's kinda like… Pokémon!_

 **What do you mean by that, Shift?**

 _When once of us is hurt or not dealing effective damage, we can switch between ourselves. We have separate full-on Auras and different strengths. I'm pretty quick with those knives, and Ross just needs to practice shooting and he'll be kinda decent! All we need is the Stoic-mon to pop out and show us what he can do!_

 **Stoic-mon?** My more serious conscience repeated. **And you will need to visit the shooting range a bit, Ross.**

"Got it…" I mumbled into the desk, causing it to vibrate a bit. I was still feeling a little drained; it was a bit jarring watching my body move of another's accord, yet watch it all happen through something like a first-person shooter game.

"Hey, Ross." A familiar male voice calling me made me raise my head. Ren was sitting next to me now. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I said. "Just a little… drained."

"You fought rather well for someone who's been injured and training out on his own," He complimented, though I knew he would be adding some criticism. "But you showed a completely different energy after a bit, and your Aura recovered almost instantly. What was that?"

"I'm… not so sure myself." I answered honestly. Ren raised an eyebrow. "This is somewhat new to me, Ren. I'm not exactly sure of everything I can do."

"I suppose that makes sense," He nodded. "We're all here to train. Just try not to hide anything from people who want to be your friends, alright?"

"Of course, Ren." Supposedly happy with my answer, he gave a small smile and patted my shoulder before turning back to sit with his team. Jaune met my gaze and threw me a thumbs-up, which I reciprocated.

 **. . . . .**

Eventually, all of the arranged matches had played out. I stayed sitting because, as aforementioned, Glynda wanted to speak to me after class. I found myself glaring at Mercury as he passed by, his smirk and cocky gaze directed right at me as he walked through the section of seats further down from me, but still making sure I saw him. My gaze was then almost magnetically drawn to his walking companion.

Her green haired with two long tails bounced and whipped as she walked. Her hips swayed with a confident swagger, as if she knew someone was watching. Then, she stretched her arms upward and my eyes traveled from her expose middle to her red eyes… which were glaring right back at me. I quickly swung my gaze away from her and got up to in an attempt to feign a coincidental occurrence.

 _You gotta be kidding, Ross._

"Shut up, Shift."

 **I though we weren't going to try flirting with the villains, let alone the one of the main villains?**

"Listen," I muttered. "She sounded somewhat remorseful near the end of Volume Three."

 _What with the "It's almost sad" quote? Ross, please, you're such a bleeding heart._

 **Honestly, you can't really think you can really go for that.**

"I won't pursue it," I assured. "But if it happens, then it happens."

 _If it happens without having met Neo, I will be very upset_.

 **If you get tangled with the villains' schemes directly, I won't forgive you.**

"Right, whatever." I reached the arena floor again. "Let's just see what Goodwitch wants, then we can get to shooting practice."

"Who are you talking to, Mister Ramsey?" Goodwitch asked, knocking me out of my stupor. "And don't worry about returning the weapon, that's part of why I needed to talk to you." I didn't even notice I brought the rifle down with me.

"Just talking to myself," I answered honestly. It wasn't a lie. "And, you're giving me permission to keep the rifle?"

"Very few have been able to use Aura-based weapons," the blonde instructor explained. "It's only fitting that, after your demonstration, you keep it."

"So an Aura-based weapon…?" I let the question hang for a bit.

"It's original shape is a rifle/machine gun combo, but whatever strength you need, it will transfer depending on one's Aura." She said. "It's meant to be shared among a whole team as an extra weapon, but has shown no practical uses. Until today."

"Okay," I said, accepting the role of the Aura-rifle's owner. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes," Goodwitch asked. "How did you recover all that Aura, and have the Aura weapon change shape, when you are only one person?"

"I'm not sure I follow." I tilted my head, hoping I was showing a face of innocence. Shift and Stoic were both agreeing not to let people know what was going on until I really had a grasp on what I could do.

"As I said," She sighed with a hint of disappointed. "That Aura weapon should only change when someone with a different Aura holds it. It changed forms for you, and you are only one person. Why is that?"

"I'm… really not sure, ma'am." I answered, really wanting to run and practice shooting ASAP.

"Fine," Another disappointed sigh. "You may go, Mister Ramsey."

I nodded my thanks and jogged out of the room. Then, I suddenly remembered I had no idea where to go. Pulling out my Scroll, I looked through the Beacon Academy Map and took a second to find that the shooting range was the next door down to the Practice Arenas. Thankfully, Goodwitch's classroom wasn't too far. I gripped my new sniper rifle with a small smile.

 **Let's get some practice in, Ross.**

 _Yeah. We kinda need it after that fight._

Shift and Stoic were right. If we were in the RWBY timeline, that meant there was going to be a lot of shit raining sooner than we could think. We needed to start training immediately.

 _Specifically, you, Ross. You're gonna need a lot of gun training and stuff if we're gonna survive past Volume Three._

Volume Three. The idea of what happened then echoed in my mind. A cold shiver ran through my very spine as the thought of having to live and fight through that came to mind. Little did I know, something else had awoken in my mind. A different conscience. One that would prove to be very dangerous, given the right provocation.

 **(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Heyo, it's BleachCadelina with another update to this little story. Hope you liked it! I have a lot planned storywise for this one, so don't turn it away just yet! Thanks for reading! There's much more to come!)**


	4. Beacon's Famous Jewels

Breakfast was a rather calm affair. I was feeling quite satisfied after getting some more practice done at the shooting range last night. The eggs and bacon were also a nice surprise; I normally ended up with a cereal breakfast, but something told I should get something heartier for the day.

It's been about a day since I've woken up in Beacon's infirmary, and things were going… alright. Shift and Stoic have proved to be quite useful in thinking of new strategies, even if we didn't try fighting with Stoic yet.

 **I'd much rather try fighting when the time comes, to be honest.**

"Why's that?" I asked through a bite of bacon.

 **So I can accurately see what I can do, instead of just through test dummies.**

 _They have robot test dummies here, Stoic!_

 **Our primary "mission" is to train to fight Grimm.**

 _No, our mission is to protect the world from evil, Grimm or human!_

"Por qué no las dos?" I asked, getting some snickers from Shift.

"Hey, Ross!" Jaune greeted, sitting down next to me. The rest of JNPR followed. "Good morning!"

"Morning, Jaune." I greeted back after swallowing the bite of bacon. I waved to the rest of his team. "Hello, all."

"How'd you sleep?" Pyrrha asked. "I saw you leaving the shooting range rather late last night."

"I slept alright." I shrugged. "I just felt like I needed to get some extra practice in."

"That's always nice to hear." Ren said, before turning to chat with Nora, who was currently occupied by a tall tower of pancakes.

"Howdy friend-os!" A new, yet familiar voice greeted. I looked to the other end of the table to see Team RWBY standing with their own food trays. Yang was leading the way. "Mind if we join you?"

"Sure!" Jaune said. Team RWBY sat down opposite JNPR and me. "This is Ross, I think you all might have met?"

"Hmm…" Yang looked at me for a moment. "You look kinda familiar, now that I think about it."

"You're the boy we saw falling over the Emerald Forest." Blake stated calmly, as if it wasn't that big of a deal. "Glad to see you're doing well."

"Yeah, that's me." I admitted. "Thanks for the save, by the way."

"I didn't know you were a Beacon student!" Ruby exclaimed. "How long have you been going here?

"About a day." I answered, picking up some scrambled eggs with my spoon. "Ozpin admitted me yesterday and had me attend classes on the same day."

"Oooh, cool." Ruby looked to me with large, curious silver eyes.

 _That's really fucking cute. Cut it out, Lindsay. You're married!_

 **Michael is Sun here, remember?** Stoic reminded jokingly.

"It's quite nice to make your acquaintance, Ross." Weiss greeted.

"Same to you, Miss Schnee." I greeted back. She was taken aback by my polite reply, as if she wasn't used to being addressed as such.

 _Because she isn't. She just got into the slightly friendly stage, remember?_

"At least I don't have to introduce myself to you." Weiss said with a slight bow of her head, then gestured to the rest of her team. "This is Yang, Blake, and Ruby. We make up Team RWBY." Her teammates respectively greeted me in turn, Yang with a smirk and a thumbs up, Blake with a calm nod, and Ruby with an enthusiastic wave from her end of the table. The young team leader then brought her attention to Nora and her tower of pancakes.

"You're a second year, right?" Yang said.

"Yeah," I answered. "How'd you know?"

"Jaune and Nora were quite excited about a certain new friend, and told us about you." Weiss said.

"I just said you were a really interesting person." Jaune shrugged.

 _That's a bit of an understatement._

"Soooo," Yang cut back in. "Would an interesting, skilled second year mind showing me some new tricks?"

 _I don't like what she's thinking, because it is most likely much more different than what I'm thinking. Barbara, please._

 **I doubt she's thinking of anything as lewd as you are.**

 _No, but Blake might!_

"What do you mean by that?" Weiss asked her blonde teammate. "Word that in a way that doesn't sound so scandalous, for our sakes."

"Get your mind outta the gutter, Weiss." Yang rolled her eyes, then turned her gaze back to me. "Let's have a fight!"

 ** _Shit._**

"Uh, sure?" I said, not knowing why I did so.

"Awesome!" Yang seemed to not notice my uncertainty. "We'll reserve a practice arena for later. This is gonna be good!"

 _What flowers would you like on your grave?_

 **Black roses would be nice, if we could find them.**

 _Wait, we can see what you've got then, Stoic._

 **Why do you think so?**

 _Because my fighting style wouldn't last too long against a brawler against Yang, and Ross can't take a punch from her, let alone a kick from Mercury without kissing the ground at least twice_.

"Thanks, Shift." I muttered sarcastically, looking around to make sure no one heard me. I thought I saw Blake's bow twitch, but I chose to ignore it; there was a lot of noise going on in this cafeteria.

 _This might be a good chance to see what you've got! If we're lucky, you might have something that equalizes both my and Ross's combat styles!_

 **And if it doesn't?**

 _Then, Ross gets added to the list to the amount of people that Yang has and will knock out with one punch. One puuuuuuunch!_

"Really grateful for your confidence there, Shift." I muttered under my breath as I finish my meal.

"You okay, Ross?" Jaune softly nudged my arm. "You're mumbling an awful lot. My mother says that's a pretty bad habit in a group setting."

 _I would make such a good "Waterboy" reference right now, but no one else would get it and take it the absolute worst way._

"Just thinking out loud to myself, Jaune." I assure him. "By the way, I have a free day after my History class, and I don't exactly know my way around the city. Do you think you can help me out with that?"

"Sorry, Ross." Pyrrha spoke this time. "We have a long day of classes."

"Team RWBY is free later!" Ruby declared happily. "Whatcha need in the city?"

"Just some school supplies and extra clothes. Maybe a laptop or two." I said.

"Alright, wouldn't hurt to hang out with the guy we saved." Yang said. "Breaking the ice before I break your face, huh?"

"Let's not scare him away if you're trying to befriend him." Blake chastised her partner.

"It's fine." I assured her. "I've gotten worse threats from friends." Light laughter ensued as breakfast time for us came to close.

 **. . . . .**

Thankfully, Team RWBY shared History class with me, so they walked with me to the classroom. There was a bit of small talk along the way, and within minutes we made it to class, albeit a little late. I sat next to Weiss, who sat between myself and the rest of RWBY, and got ready for class. The Schnee heiress was kind enough to lend me a pen and some paper for the class, which would consist of a three-hour lecture. I wasn't a stranger to this, as college lectures could go on for longer at times.

"Good day class!" Joel Heyman's voice rapidly greeted as his green-haired character speeded down the stairs and came to a halt at the lecture space below the band-shell seats. The comically familiar voice of Caboose sent me into a fit of snirks and giggles that made Weiss look at me weird. So as not to look weird, I pounded my chest to make it look like I was actually just coughing.

"Are you okay, Ross?" She asked me, eyes genuine with concern.

"Yeah, I'm good." I nodded back to her. Satisfied with my answer, she turned her attention back to Oobleck, pen ready for the onslaught of rapid-fire information that was to come.

And what an onslaught it was! While he didn't speak as rapidly as the show had depicted him, Oobleck still proved to be very, very verbose. I was able take the main points of each section of his lecture. He _barely_ wrote anything on the board. On the board was a timeline of Remnant from the time of the Great War until modern time, with a few notes on each subject on each important noted event on the timeline. However, Professor Oobleck just went on and on and on about the various topics we covered, from Faunus rights movement-relevant events to advances in history with technology from Atlas. Weiss seemed to smile every single time an advancement from Atlas, or Mantle, was mentioned.

 _Wow, such bias Weiss._

 **She's allowed to take pride in her home country. Now hush, Shift, let Ross focus on the lecture.**

The two voices in my head had been entertaining themselves while the lecture went on, and I was doing my best not to pay attention to them. Every once in a while, I would still let out a quite scoff or laugh at some sarcastic comment that Shift said about how we never had to suffer through this when we watched the show. Then, Stoic would tell him to stuff it and let me focus. That whole cycle repeated multiple times throughout the entire three hours. Eventually, I managed to truly ignore their voices and get on with putting my full attention to Oobleck's lecture.

Three hours had gone and passed, and I finally picked my head up from the table. No, I didn't knock out; Oobleck's massive upload of information was just extremely difficult for me to download. I was just mentally drained. Shift and Stoic were kind enough to stay quiet while my brain recovered from the massive amount of information that blasted through the floodgates that was my threshold of understanding. Learning about world history back home was one thing, where I understood a lot of how the world worked. Here, the history of Remnant was filled with phenomenon and theories that just did not seem to fit in the ultimately physical world I came from. This place was complicated as all hell.

 _That's an understatement_. Shift remarked.

"Are you ready to go, Ross?" Yang said as she stood up, stretching. Before I could answer, my Scroll buzzed.

"One sec." I notified her. Unlocking my Scroll, I saw that it was a message from Ozpin.

I received word that you would need to visit Vale for certain supplies. You have a Beacon-funded credit card loaned to you for use for such reasons. It can be found on your Scroll. It is widely accepted at most stores in the city. Stay safe.

Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy

 _Well that's convenient._ Shift said. True to his word, I checked my Scroll's contents and eventually found the app called "Beacon Credit." Opening revealed the image of a somewhat generic credit card with the silhouette of Beacon Academy acting as a sort of watermark. Below the image was my name, and a line of numbers labelled as my Card Number.

 **We don't need to ask RWBY for money, at least. That would have been quite embarrassing.**

 _Very embarrassing._ Shift added. _As if we didn't owe them already!_

"Alright, so who's coming to the city?" I asked as I got up.

"We all are, Ross." Weiss answered. "We're pretty much free for the day as well, so we're free to help you around the city and whatnot."

"Well, if you're so sure," I said. "Lead on, please."

"In our uniforms?" Yang asked. "At least let us change first. Then we'll meet up to go to the city."

"Why do we need to change?" I asked her. "We're just going to pick up supplies for myself."

"You never know." Yang shrugged. "Also, why the hell not?"

"True." I accepted the blonde's insistence go change.

"Give me your Scroll number," Weiss held her Scroll out to me, showing a blank Contact page. "Then we'll message you when to meet up with us." I took it just as Yang spoke up.

"Ooh, Weiss." Yang cooed. "Getting the new guy's digits! You gonna take him to dinner after we're done shopping? We can always postpone the fight for your little _date_ tonight." This was a little much for Weiss, as she turned to her teammate with a cold stare, but a very obvious blush on her cheeks. Yang mimed zipping her lip as her humorous demeanor was shot down by Weiss' stare. I quickly filled out my name and number in Weiss Scroll and handed it back to her promptly. She quickly thanked me, and I jogged out ahead just before I heard Weiss explode at Yang and give her a scolding lecture that rivaled in intensity of insults to that of a drill sergeant. Today's little shopping venture should be fun.

 _You didn't even like Weiss in the show_. Commented Shift upon exiting the classroom.

 **Well, this isn't exactly the show, Shift. Maybe we'll learn about things we didn't like and thing we actually liked end up in a different taste for us.**

 _Whatever._ Shift said. _Just don't do anything stupid, like attempt to make a harem._

"Wasn't planning on it, Shift." I said. "I just plan on taking it slow and work on improving my own fighting abilities. And yours and Stoic's, of course. Our survival is my priority."

 **Of course.**

With that, I walked down the hall and took a flight of stairs up to my designated floor, and continued to walk until I reached my room. Upon entering it, one could see that it was clearly meant for some faculty member; it opened up to a small kitchen (with a fridge) that extended into a small living room that had a small television set and a small couch. A door opposite the fridge in the kitchen revealed a small coat closet, in which I deposited my uniform jacket.

"Stoic, are you okay with fighting Yang today?" I asked my serious conscience.

 **I suppose there won't be a much better opportunity for us to learn what I'm capable of.**

"That's the spirit." I praised him like a parent would do when he cheered up a sad child. "Now, Shift, I'm going to need you to stay focused with me during the fight. We need to come up with a strategy that we can use for future reference."

 _Gotcha Ross-boss!_

"Don't call me that," I commanded. "Ever."

 _Gotcha_.

"Who are you talking to?" A different voice spoke this time. I turned to see Blake, in her black and white outerwear, standing in my kitchen space with confused look.

 _Uh…_

 **This isn't good.** I gulped nervously as Blake approached me.

"I will ask you again." Blake said in a soft, yet mildly threatening voice. "You've been talking and responding to people too coherently to just be mumbling. Who are you talking to?"

 ** _Fuck_**.

 **(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Eyo, BleachCadelina here with the fourth chapter of this story coming at ya! Hope you liked it, I never expected the story to catch much of an audience in general, and yet I see people following and favoriting it! Thanks so much!**

 **Please don't be afraid to put a comment in the reviews, it's nice to hear from the readers. It also helps build confidence in me to know people are actively reading my stories.**

 **Thanks again for reading Tendencies. I'll have more of it soon. After all 5 classes worth of English homework. See y'all next update!)**


	5. Mash and Mess

_Tell her she's crazy, Ross!_ Shift yelled.

"You must be hearing things, Blake." I tried his suggestion.

"I heard you having a coherent conversation with at least two people just now."

 **She's trespassing, Ross.**

"You also snuck into my room and butt your nose into my business, Blake." I defended. "You're not looking so good here either.

"…" Blake paused, not ready for me to answer back with that. "It doesn't change the fact that you've been acting suspicious."

"It's nothing you should be worried about." I said.

 _Right, Blake's paranoia reached a peak in Volume Two_.

 **She must be very paranoid about any White Fang insurgents. Our entire story about getting here already sounds fishy. Imagine having to explain this whole situation.**

"Blake, I know we don't know each other very much," I started. "But, I swear I'm not here to harm anyone."

"I can't be so sure about that when you're close to Team JNPR, or if you plan on befriending my team." Blake said. "Just answer me! Who are you talking to?"

"It's… complicated." I answered hesitantly. How do I explain that I have two other separate minds sharing my body with me? "Has anyone in Team JNPR told you about my fight in Goodwitch's class yesterday?"

"No," Blake answered. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ask Jaune about what happened in my fight yesterday." I said. "And keep an eye on what happens in the fight later. If you catch it and make the right guess, then I'll explain it to you."

"Hmm," She took a moment to think, her golden eyes flicking their gaze from my left ear to the right one. "And if I'm right about my suspicions? From how much I've observed and listened to you, it's like you're running a spy operation with someone outside of Beacon. "

 _Girl, you have no idea of the bigger threats that have already infiltrated Beacon. Y'all aren't ready for the bullshit that happens here_.

"If you're right," I said. "I don't report you for breaking into my room, as well as you get to deliver whatever punishment I'm sentenced personally. Deal?" I offered a hand to shake. I noticed her eyes were still wandering over me, looking for signs of anything that would act as evidence towards her theory of me. After a moment, she extended her arm to meet mine.

"Deal." Her hand was warm, and had a light callous.

 **Probably because she's used Gambol Shroud quite a bit longer than the rest of RWBY**.

 _Thaaaaat's not a canon fact, Stoic._

"Alright, then." I said, with a small smile. "Now can you leave so I can change into 'appropriate' clothes like you girls have done?"

 **. . . . .**

The city was not much bigger than Manhattan's lower side. Then again, the inhabitable region of Vale was palisaded in to protect from Grimm. Ruby was kind enough to point out, on a souvenir map, where the important Hunter-related shops were located. I didn't want to fool around with Dust just yet, so I felt I would make most of my visits to the ammunition stores. As I specified earlier, we made a stop at a general clothing store and they all, over-enthusiastically (except for Blake, who was still harboring her suspicions), and went on their own little clothing store expeditions, as girls do. I went around and picked out several pars of boxers, a few pairs of jeans, a few random solid-color tees, and two zipper hoodies. After paying for it, I waited about ten more minutes for the girls to finish playing dress up and catch up to me. After a little more city-exploring, I found myself with more bags than I had expected to be carrying. Although, only two or three of these were actually mine.

"I thought this shopping expedition wasn't to have as many bags involved."

 _Women, man. Mention shopping and your wallet ends up starving._

 **At least they paid for themselves. Be grateful they're being friendly, especially with Blake in the mix.**

"Sooooo," Ruby approached me out of nowhere, nearly scaring me out of my wits. "You excited 'bout fighting Yang?"

"As excited as I could be, I guess." I sighed my answer. "You don't think your sister would mind going easy on me? I'm a bit rusty."

"Right, Nora did mention something about you getting a lot of injuries before." Ruby recounted her friend's telling of their new acquaintance. "And sorry, when Yang says she wants a fight, she's gonna have that fight."

 _Why would you wanna pass on the Stoic experiment, Ross?_

 **Because there could be a more controlled environment for us to out what I'm capable of?**

 _Tch, don't be a bitch._

"You okay, Ross?" Ruby waved a hand in front of my face, bringing me out of my stupor. "You're spacing out a bit. Worse than Jaune in Port's class!"

"Uh, yeah." Looking back as we walked, I saw Blake leering at me. Her gaze was occasionally broken by her minor additions to the conversation Weiss and Yang were having. If I was hearing correctly, Yang was still teasing Weiss about getting my number. "Just thinking of strategies where I don't get my face punched in too hard."

"Ooh!" Ruby seemed genuinely interested in that. "Any good ones?"

 _Run around until she's tired?_

 **Pray to whatever god that whatever I have is good enough to last at least ten seconds with her?**

"I'm sure one'll come to mind when I'm in the heat of battle!" I answered with faux-confidence.

"Yeah! That's the spirit, Ross!" Ruby cheered. I tried my best to be as chipper as she was, as we walked back to Beacon for me to get my faced punched in.

 **. . . . .**

 _You ready for this, Stoic?_ Shift had been giving Stoic quite the pep talk ever since we entered the sparring arena.

 **Ready as I'll ever be. Ross, are you ready?** I was already dressed in my light armor and stood with my new Aura rifle at my hip. Shift actually brought up a decent point earlier as we changed: what would we name our weapon? Everyone had some cool names for theirs, so it felt fitting to do so myself.

 _Ooh, back on that thought train Ross?_ Shift apparently noticed my change in thought. _We're part of your mind, too. Anyway, we'll think of a name while Stoic gets his ass kicked!_

 **You aren't very good at being positive moral support.** I sighed in agreement as Yang's voice rang out.

"Alrighty, Ross! You ready for a beat down?" She punched her fists together in eagerness. "Weiss will be ref for us, by the way. I guess she doesn't want her crush getting too hurt."

"They won't find your body Xiao-Long." Weiss threatened out loud, but her teammate simply shrugged and stuck her tongue out at the Schnee heiress.

Looking back to the audience, I saw that both JNPR and the rest of RWBY was sat in the front row. The rows behind them held a smattering of students that I barely recognized were from my Combat class. Meeting Blake's gaze resulted in a col glare yet again, her suspicions yet to wane. Every once in a while, Jaune would say something to her, presumably about me, to which she would nod. I broke my gaze away from the Faunus and back to our Lifting up my Aura gun into a proper grip, I nodded to let Weiss know I was ready. Yang shifted into a boxer's stance and nodded to her as well. With a swipe of her finger, Weiss summoned a hologram above us to display our pictures and respective Aura levels.

"Fighters, ready!" She called out. I took a deep breath. Weiss look quickly at me and Yang. "Begin!"

"Stoic, now!" I muttered aloud, and I felt a harsh pull on my chest. Suddenly, I was on the couch again, this time sitting with the skinnier version of me known as Shift. Instead of greeting him though, I looked to the television screen that was my perspective. It was slightly higher now, and my Aura rifle was now quickly extending and thinning out into a pole.

 _That's not a shield…_ Shift said next to me. _I hope whatever that is can—Whoa!_

 **Whoa, indeed.** Stoic's deeper voice reverberated in the speakers around us. The pole had thickened slightly and gained different weights at both ends. On one end was a heavy looking metal ball. On the other end, was the multi-tool-like blade head; Stoic's weapon was a _halberd_! The entire length of the weapon shared the same white color of the original weapon.

 _DO NOT PURSUE LU BU, MOTHERFUCKERS!_ Shift cheered.

"I'm gonna take a guess here and say that you have the most physical strength, so you may also be able to take a few hits from Yang." I said. Speaking of which…

"That's… not a gun." Apparently my transformation caught Yang off guard. "Ross, is that still you?"

 **Yes,** Stoic answered. **What, are you chickening out now that I've changed my style?**

 _Ooh, Stoic's being taunty!_ Shift seemed to be appreciating his counterpart's banter. _Go get 'er buddy!_

"Did you just call me chicken?" Yang's eyes seemed to flash red for a moment. "C'mon then, come and get some!"

 **Ladies first.** Stoic bantered back. It seemed to be enough, as Yang launched herself forward with her gauntlets and cocked her right arm back for a punch that would smash buildings. Stoic simply swung his halberd with a sort of expertise I never personally had.

"How are you doing this, Stoic?"

 **No clue.** He muttered. **It just feels… natural.**

 _It was the same for me with the knives._ Shift added. _Though it isn't hard to use knives as weapons, compared to FUCKING HALBERD, STOIC._

"I'm just glad we have some midrange coverage with it." I commented. All the while, Stoic was fending off Yang's attacks with ease. She'd get a punch every once in a while, but Stoic would strike back with a slash that sent her flying back a bit. Looking up to the hologram above them, we saw that their Auras were both down to a little less than a half.

"You're pretty good, Ross." Yang said, catching her breath. "Didn't Ruby say you were injured and rusty?"

 **In some instances, I may be.** Stoic answered her.

 _Are… are you flirting with her?_

 **No,** Stoic muttered. **I'm just making witty banter.**

"Whatever," Yang said. "I'm ending this now!" With that, she launched forward again, fist primed to deliver another heavy punch. Instead of responding with the bladed head of the halberd, Stoic swung the weapon around so that the metal ball was to meet Yang's incoming punch. And it did with a slam that sent her hopping back immediately, holding her right hand. Upon closer inspection, the counter-attack left the top front of Yang's right gauntlet with a sizeable dent.

 **Are you okay, Yang?** Stoic asked, lowering his halberd down. **Would you like to-**

His questioning was interrupted by an irate Yang running at him once more with her left arm primed for another strike. His response, as delayed and off-guard as he was, was to simply raise the pole part of the halberd in front of him. However, the punch went right under the pole and slammed into Stoic's chest sending him sliding backwards about a yard.

"Yang!" Weiss voice rang with authority. "I told you to stop fighting!"

"Why?" Yang yelled back, her eyes red and full of ire.

"Not only is your weapon broken," Weiss pointed out the blonde's badly dented gauntlet. "Your Aura level is already in the red. That last hit from Ross was a hard one. Why didn't you check your Aura?"

After the scolding lecture and not direct response, Yang looked up to check her Aura levels. Her was indeed in the red while Stoic was still good in the yellow. Our blonde opponent took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Upon opening them, her irises were her normal lilac.

"Sorry, Ross." She said, scratching the back of her head. "Guess I kinda got carried away."

 **It's not a problem.** Stoic replied before whispering to us. **Ross, are you ready to come back out?**

"Yup." I said. Shift and I hadn't really said much while we co-inhabited my mind-couch-thing. We were just watching in awe as Stoic successfully fended off Yang and _won_. My chest flared with pain again, and I was back in control of my body and sight. Stoic's halberd returned to its gun form.

"Aaand you're short and less muscly now." Yang noticed. "That was weird. Cool, but weird."

"Yeah, I noticed that right when you started!" Ruby jumped into the conversation. "And your weapon changed as you did!"

 ** _Sigh_**. My other mentalities sighed in unison with me.

 _Better now than never, right?_

 **We can't just keep lying if we need to fit in here. Ozpin might think we're in cahoots with someone. Blake, too.**

"Right, so…" I looked to the two teams on the bench who were now looking to me for some sort of answer. "Can we not have this discussion here?"

Around an hour later,

We were sat in the living room section of my dorm. Which wasn't a lot of space, actually. Weiss, Pyrrha, and Blake sat on the small couch while the rest either sat on the ground or stayed standing as their listened to what I had to say. And they did. They listened well, but didn't ask any questions in the abbreviated tale I was telling them. I didn't tell them I was from another world or that I died, of course. Just the story behind my ability. As I finished, I waited to gauge their reactions.

"So, your personal Semblance is being able to switch with two other personalities inside you?" Ruby's eyes sparkled with wonder.

"And you're able to converse with them in your mind?" Blake said, still skeptical but starting to accept what she had seen. "That's why you mutter a lot? You're just talking to your two other personalities."

"And that Aura gun Goodwitch gave you changes form depending on the wielder's Aura, so it's perfect for you!" Ruby's enthusiasm for weapons shone.

"That's… yeah, that's pretty much it." I shrugged.

"That's _awesome!_ " Ruby gushed. I blushed and replied with a meager thanks.

"Can we see both of them?" Pyrrha asked. I shrugged, inwardly asking the other two.

 _Sure, I'd like to meet 'em._

 **I've already made an appearance, but sure.**

"They say okay, but I can only do one at a time." I said, and the audience nodded. "Alright, say hello to Shift, then." My chest was pulled once more and Shift was in control.

 _Heyo!_ Shift greeted. _I'm Shift. I'm the fun side of Ross's personality! Nice ta meetcha!_

"Hiya! I'm Nora!" The ginger from JNPR greeted enthusiastically. "Do you like pancakes?"

 _I like all foods._ My right brain mentality answered her, to which she smiled and cheered aloud. _So uh, yeah. Ross isn't crazy or a spy talking quietly into a headpiece or whatever. He's just talking to us._

"What's your weapon, Shift?" Pyrrha asked. Looking around, Shift found my gun on the kitchen table and picked it up. As planned, the gun changed into Shift's trademark ragged knives, much to the appreciation of the many weapon masters in the room.

"So you must be quite quick in order to attack at close range with those." Pyrrha said, clearly sounding like she was making strategies up that would easily take us down.

 _That's right!_ Shift nodded. _Anything else?_ After answering a few more, unimportant question, I changed places with Shift.

"Alright, now here's Stoic, whom you met earlier." I said, albeit a little out of breath. My chest was tugged inwardly, then I was on the couch with Shift for the second time that day, and Stoic was in control, as marked by his slightly higher perspective onscreen.

"Quick question, Shift."

 _Yeah?_

"Why did my mind portray our little… hub," I took a moment to think of an appropriate word. "As a small living room?"

 _No clue._ Shift shrugged. _It was like this when we got here. Convenient, ain't it?_ I nodded, grabbing some popcorn in hand and munching on the convenient snack.

 **Hello, again.** Stoic greeted RWBY and JNPR. They all waved and greeted back enthusiastically, though Yang's greeting was filtered through some salt.

"You're… Stoic?" Pyrrha asked, remembering the name I briefly mentioned.

 **Yes.** Stoic nodded curtly. **I'm the part of Ross' personality in which reasoning and logic are stronger.**

"A very left brain, right brain sort of thing." Jaune, surprisingly noted.

 **That's… one way of seeing it, yes.**

"Quick question!" Ruby was emphatically raising her hand, as if we were in a classroom setting.

 **Um… yes, Ruby?**

"Do you or Shift have your own Semblances?" She asked, lowering her hand.

 **Well, I think our Semblance in general is being able to switch between each other.** Stoic attempted to answer. **I feel it would be unfair to technically have 3 different Semblances within one soul. We are still, technically, the same soul. However, it is divided among the three of us, which is why it was restored when Ross changed to Shift in the match again Mercury. However, our total Aura levels, if apparently measure by medical equipment, is quite immense according to Ozpin and authorities of the infirmary.**

"Wow," Yang said after Stoic finished explaining. "You are quite the nerd, Stoic."

 **Logic and reasoning, Yang.** Stoic reminded.

 _He may be a nerd, but he's OUR nerd, lady!_ I rolled my eyes at Shift's retort.

"So you have no Semblance of your own, just the changing of persona?" Blake asked. For some reason, Weiss seemed quiet while Stoic and Shift were talking.

 **That's correct.**

"And you're the voice of reason?" Blake continued. "And Shift is the more… creative side?"

 **Yes.**

"What about the other parts of your being?" Blake asked, her eyes seemingly sparkled with interest.

 _Why is she… ooooh!_

"What's up?" I turned to Shift.

 _Remember? The second interaction she had with Ruby had something about a book with a split soul! We're basically a fairytale come true to her!_ As Shift and I mulled over what this might mean, the other two teams continued to ask other, unimportant questions.

 **Is that all?** The two teams nodded in unison, and I took that as a cue to take control once more.

"Well, that's all three of us." I said, unsure how to finish our presentation.

"That was awesome!" Nora practically exploded. "You basically have a team inside you! You'd be the best party trick ever!"

"It is rather entertaining, yeah." I admitted.

"And, you can change between the three at will?" Weiss finally spoke up with a question.

"Yes, I can. It takes some energy each time, though." My answer appeared to satisfy her, as she took a moment to contemplate something before turning her attention to her Scroll. "Oh! It's already 6:30?"

"Oh jeez, dinner's almost out!" Ruby yelled, immediately getting up and bursting out of my dorm with great speed and rose petals. JNPR and WBY followed suit, though they quickly remembered to depart with a brief "bye" and "see you downstairs" as they collectively passed over the threshold of my dorm room.

I sighed, looking back to where they all sat. It was relatively clean; the couch wasn't as messed up as I thought it would. Picking up a few displaced pillows and carelessly lobbing them back onto the furniture, I realized that I should also join them before the cafeteria closes out dinner. Making sure to lock the door as I exited and closed the door to my room, I turned to see three familiar faces walking down our hallway. Mercury, Emerald, and Cinder were walking down my hallway, despite it not being one of the normal dormitory corridors.

"Oh, hey dude." Mercury Black greeted, causing his two companions to turn to me. I could hear Shift growling like a hungry hellhound at the sight of him. "We're a bit lost."

"Would you happen to know where the Vytal Tournament students from out of Beacon are staying?" Cinder's velvety voice seemed to coo the question, as if trying to coerce me into doing something. I did my best to not think of Jessica Nigri when she made eye contact with me, lest she might see me blushing… or worse.

"Uh, not really." I shrugged, making my way to pass them. Mercury shrugged indifferently, and Emerald stayed quiet, though I could feel her red eyes on me. Did she remember her I was?

"You're apparently quite a strong one," Cinder's voice stopped me in my tracks. "Maybe we could—"

An intense, painful pull from a chest took place, causing me to wince and close my eyes in pain, only to open them and find that I was on the couch sat next to… Stoic?

 **Shift, be careful!** Unsure of what was going on, I looked to the screen and saw that Shift's hand was on Cinder's shoulder. Her golden eyes appeared to burn with anger at the gesture, but Shift's perspective did not falter.

 _Listen, Cinder._ Shift's use of her name aloud caused me and Stoic to face-palm, but the mentioned captive's golden stare seemed to falter. I didn't hear anything from either of her cronies either. _It'd be smart if you kept your distance from me._ He released her shoulder, and began walking away. I thought we had a minor sliver of safety… that is until he stopped to turn his head and say, _And keep that dragon in the mountain, will you?_

 **SHIFT, I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT PAIN IS WHEN YOU GET BACK**.

 _S-sorry guys,_ Shift said once he made sure he was finally out of range of the trio.

"You just painted a huge fucking target on us, you IDIOT." My face was still in my hands. I sighed. "Whatever, just let me take control now."

 **. . . . .**

Dinner was a somewhat tame affair. I had to learn how to filter out Stoic's massive, angry lecture to Shift. Shift was simply taking it, like a child who had been caught with his hand in a very dangerous pot of snakes. It basically was, to be honest. Looking over the two conversing Teams RWBY and JNPR, I could just make out green, grey, and black hair in the opposite corner of the cafeteria. They hadn't gotten up to eat anything, so I deduced that they were here for me. I sighed aloud, trying to disguise it with blowing on a hot spoonful of mashed potatoes.

This… was gonna be tough.

 **(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello all! BleachCadelina here with another update for this story. I'll have more for all of my stories, but they will come later because college work is seriously killing my creative juices at the moment. Stay tuned for more!**

 **Thanks to all who have been reading, following, etc. Leave a comment, praise and criticism are both appreciated highly!)**


	6. Earl Grey Vodka Shots are SO GOOD

I've been attending Beacon for an entire weak now. I've made some visits to the firing range and actually got somewhat better with my sniper rifle. Shift and Stoic also got some practice in against some combat dummies. We've also come up with names for our respective weapons too; My rifle received the name Isolator, Shift's knives were dubbed Twin Ire, and Stoic simply called his halberd Luna. I was currently eating lunch with Teams RWBY and JNPR as I revealed our weapons' names.

"Isolator?" Pyrrha queried.

"Because I can take out single targets quite effectively as a sniper." I answered.

"And when it's automatic?" Nora asked.

"It's… still called Isolator." I concluded. Nora seemed to accept my answer and continued to eat the pork chop in front of me.

"Well, I think your weapons' names sound cool!" Ruby said cheerfully. "Adds a bit of edginess to them in a way."

 _As if Crescent Rose didn't scream edginess_. Shift said. I could feel him rolling his eyes.

"So, it's Friday," Yang noted aloud. "Anyone got plans for later?"

JNPR shrugged collectively. Both Blake and Weiss voiced the option of finishing the day off with a little extra studying. Of course, Yang, Ruby, and Shift scoffed at the idea. Stoic did seem to like the idea of spending the start of the weekend at the library. I was glancing around, making sure neither Cinder nor her cronies were around to hear about any plans of ours to get out of Beacon.

"Ya good, Ross?" Barb— I mean the blonde brawler asked, YANGknig me out of my surveilling and bringing my mind back to our table. "You've been glancing around for a while."

"I keep hearing a fly or something." I lied. "I'm trying to see where it might be."

 _Wow, nice one. Smoooooth_. Shift commented. Stoic said nothing.

"It's probably Shift trying to be funny again." Ruby offered.

 _Hey!_

"Is there anything fun to do in the city?" I, personally, was never one to really go out on a weekend. But seeing as the internet I knew and loved didn't really exist and hold the same level of entertainment for me, I suppose there was no harm is developing more social habits like, going out every once in a while.

"I know a really cool club downtown!" Yang jumped to the answer I had already guessed. "I'm friends with the guy who owns the place, so we shouldn't be given much trouble for drinks."

 _Uh, could you define friend for me?_

 **I'm not sure if we should be drinking very much, but you should at least be careful about being in Junior's Club in general.**

That was a good point. Junior had some connection to Torchwick, which entailed a whole web towards Cinder and Salem. Getting on someone's bad side there wouldn't be very good for any of us. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad of a day in there. I had finally gotten into the swing of things course-wise; Port's class was easy to follow if I remembered to read the Grimm Studies textbook, and Oobleck's class was easily able to understand as long as I just paid attention to what he was saying. It took the most time to get used to Combat Class, because I could only use one of us for any match I was called up for. Also, the students in the audience for my match against Yang must have spilled about how I could change my weapon and fighting style, seeing as my opponents thus far in class have been a bit hesitant to join me in the arena. I was secretly glad that Miss Goodwitch lectured the class that they'll be facing much worse Grimm and people with much more dangerous abilities than me. I was openly unamused at the fact that people took this to mean that they should definitely start looking at me more as a target than a fellow student.

"Yeah sure," I nodded to Yang. "I could use a few drinks."

"You drink?" Yang asked, a challenge written on her brow.

"I'm not going to be doing any drink-offs, Yang." I warned. "I'm just that to cool off after classes."

 _Attaboy._

 **Don't want another Warsaw incident, do we? Especially not here.**

 _We have a rep to make and keep!_

I sighed as Weiss and Blake were reluctantly convinced to join in the afterschool festivities, though I knew they wouldn't exactly be as openly excited upon being there, as Yang would. JNPR collectively decided not to join in, as they wanted to get some team-based training done for the week; apparently Jaune had some new strategies he wanted to try out pertaining Nora and Pyrrha.

 **. . . . .**

 _Ah, a night out away from the textbooks!_

 **Regular breaks from coursework is very necessary in keeping a healthy academic lifestyle!** And with that statement, Stoic justified my reason to go with RWBY's plan and join them at the Junior's Club tonight. Seeing as anything with Yang in that area could end up somewhat dangerous, I had half a mind to bring Isolator with me even though I had no way to properly hide it. And I didn't want Shift of all people to being control of the body in a party scene, even if Twin Ire would be easier to hide.

 **Unarmed would be our best bet.** Stoic said. **Besides, I feel the rest of Yang's team would restrain her from doing anything extreme.**

 _We also wouldn't be stopped for pat-downs!_

"Good point, Shift." I complimented. He was absolutely right; if I did manage to bring Isolator, I would have been searched and marked as a threat. "Unarmed it is."

I looked to the mirror in front of me, checking my outfit for any stains. I had on some my all-black sneakers and black socks, as I didn't have any other pair of shoes save for the boots I used for combat. I had put on black khaki pants and a simple dark grey belt. I wore a grey V-neck 3-button shirt, leaving the top button unclasped. To top off my ensemble was as a light, black button down I kept open. Seeing as it would get rather humid in the club, I rolled up my sleeves up just under my elbow. Satisfied with my dark-color-themed set that screamed "I was emo once but I still enjoy the black aesthetic," I made sure to grab my wallet and Scroll before leaving to meet up with Team RWBY.

I found them waiting at the place we planned, the Beacon Bullhead docks, all dressed up in a casually attractive way. Blake decided with a very simple ensemble of black sweatpants and a black shirt, accentuated by a white belt and white leather jacket. Weiss simply wore a short white overcoat over her normal ensemble. Both Ruby and Yang wore skinny jeans (Ruby's were black, Yang's were blue), and they both wore tops and jackets that matched their color themes, red and gold, respectively.

"You clean up good, Ross!" Yang called me out as she noticed me jogging over to them. Just in time, as well, a Bullhead was warming up its engine and giving the signal that it was ready for boarding. "Trying hard to impress Weiss, I see?" I roll my eyes at the remark as the mentioned heiress punched the blonde in the shoulder for the dumb jab.

"Shall we?" Blake caught our collective attention as she started walking to the available Bullhead. We got on board and sat down, allowing an awkward silence fall around myself as Yang animatedly reminded Ruby that the little sister would _definitely not_ be drinking that night. Ruby constantly said that she knew and that she would just be dancing with Weiss for the night. Blake opted for a book to pass the time, and I really wished I had earphones and my old phone.

 _That's one thing I kinda miss, though_. Shift seemed to agree. _The music. There were some damn good ones on our old phone. Wish we still had that._

 **Well, I suppose finding some new music would be another way to get used to living here, right?**

I sighed as my hand subconsciously moved to get out my Scroll. I didn't exactly have any games on it, but I had a Notepad application. While there was the usual list of things to remember on it, a good amount of notes were prose-style ramblings no longer than a few paragraphs about what was so different between this new life and the old ones. Seeing as I had never actually been on a Bullhead before, I decided to take note of it.

"Whatcha typing there, Ross?" Yang asked with a friendly nudge at my shoulder. "Love letters for Weiss?"

"Well," I wasn't exactly in total control of my mouth, my priority was typing out a few more notes quickly so Yang couldn't catch it. "I do have a thing for shorter girls."

"Aw, so that's a 'no' for me?" Yang asked, putting a hand over her breast in faux-pain.

"Unfortunately," I put away my Scroll, emphasizing my statement with shrug. At least Yang knew I was just joking around, as she punched me in the shoulder and laughed. "So…"

"What's up, Ross?" Yang asked, as if she knew I was about to say something important, which it was.

"I never properly thanked you all for catching and saving me." I wasn't exactly sure how to word it. Shift and Stoic didn't either. "So uh, yeah. Thanks for that. I guess."

 _Fucking. Smooth._

 **I wish we had honestly thought of something for before you did that.**

"Aw, it's no big deal!" Ruby said. "I'm just glad you turned out to be a cool guy!"

"I try." I shrugged.

"Just don't be Cardin and we'll be just fine, Ross." Yang said, patting my back.

"You are very considerate, at least." Weiss added with a small smile. Blake smiled and nodded at me from behind her book. After that, the rest of the Bullhead ride comprised of small talk and more patient silence from Blake. I continued to take notes in my Scroll about the Bullhead; it reminded me a bit of the New York City Subway, except with less advertisements and a much appreciated absence of "showtime." After about twenty minutes onboard, we got off and started walking through what Yang noted was one of the sketchier parts of the city, especially at night. This caused Weiss to start walking closer to her partner. I walked right behind the team, ultimately used to being the quiet one in any crowd.

 **You should probably stick closer to them. Backing off like this leads to getting tripped up and mugged.** That was somewhat true, I suppose. I jogged a little, catching up to and walking beside Ruby opposite Weiss. Weiss seemed a little more uncomfortable about the situation than Ruby, though it's to be expected given the circumstances. We walked up the steps of the club entrance and entered one-by-one after the guards patted us down.

 _I'm glad we decided not to bring our weapons._ I nodded as we entered the club, and were immediately bombarded by music and… guns pointed at us?

 _Dammit, Yang!_ Shift yelled.

"Just here to party with friends, promise!" Yang held out a pinky as a sign of the promise. As if on cue, the giant man himself stepped forward.

"You better keep this one restrained then," Jack's deep voice emanated from Junior's chest, sending a much more intimidating vibe in person. "Or you're all banned from my club." His eyes wandered through our entire group, with much emphasis to the smaller members. "And no underage drinking. Dance if you want, I'm not getting fined for serving minors."

"Understood." I said, simultaneously with Blake and Weiss. I instantly marked the three of us as the responsible ones here tonight, hopefully. With that, Junior and his goons spread out to let us properly get into the club, and we all dispersed to our desired areas. Blake and Weiss went to sit at a table, not too far from where Ruby and Yang were dancing on the illuminated dance space. I went to an already familiar area: the bar. Hopping onto a stool, I found myself across Junior once again. The taller man nodded at me, eyebrow raised in question.

"I'm new to Vale." I summed up. Junior shrugged, as if he had no clue what to do with that information. I mentally ticked that Junior wasn't exactly good at taking cues. "Uh, four Early Grey Vodka shots?"

Junior tilted his head down in what seemed like contemplation, then nodded and disappeared to somewhere behind the bar wall. I turned on my stool to check on the girls; Weiss and Blake were rolling their eyes at some unfortunate boy who thought they had enough charm to flirt with them, Ruby and Yang were still dancing with each other, though the latter was doing her best to establish space between her little sister and any approaching boys. That task would be easy for her, as she was a much greater "distraction" for them than Ruby was. It wasn't too long until I heard the telltale *clink* of small shot glasses meeting the bar, causing me to turn around to see Junior standing with a smug smile.

"Haven't made that in a while," He explained. "Had to read up on it." I nodded, taking out about twenty Lien, at which he nodded, and handed it over to him. With that, I quickly downed the first two of four shots, relishing in the one of the few types of shots I liked. Fuck Fireball, seriously. I let Junior know his handiwork was well done as he went to help other bar patrons.

Dancing really wasn't my thing. Socializing wasn't my thing either. Drinking, and holding my alcohol, I could do. I blame my dad and my Filipino genes; if there was one thing Filipinos were known for besides damn good musical and culinary talent, it's being able to drink loads and still drive home safely.

"That's, like, quite a lot there, kid." A valley-girl voice popped up to my left. One of the twins the one with long hair and a white dress stood next to me. "You sure you can handle four?" My answer was to swiftly down the remaining two Early Grey vodka shots. The flavor of the Earl Grey really helped to push off the burn of the vodka.

 _You're gonna flirt with her, aren't you?_

 **She's not directly affiliated with Cinder, so it doesn't hurt to try. And Ross has quite the advantage over us in terms of dealing with girls.**

 _You were flirting with Yang during your fight!_

 **There's a HUGE difference between flirting and witty banter, Shift. You need to learn that.** I waved over Junior for another four shots, passing him another 20 Lien bill as he walked over. He disappeared behind the wall again to prepare them.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" The single twin asked me, eyebrow raised, but her tone still expressed curiosity. Junior was much faster in preparing them this time, apparently, as he brought the four new shots to me within the minute. Maybe he made more of the mix just for me?

 _Aw, how sweet of him!_

"Sorry," I said, quickly downing the first of the new four. "That's rude of me. I'm Ross." I offered a hand for her to shake, which she did. Glancing down quickly, I saw that her heels were indeed the same long, bladed heels from the Yellow trailer.

"Oh, a gentleman." She cooed. "I'm Melanie. You're a new face, though. You should, like, definitely tell me about yourself."

"Not much to say." I shrugged. "Just another guy that wants to cool off after a stressful week of classes."

"You study at Beacon?" Her green eyes widened. "You must be really strong then."

"Working on that last part." I joke, successfully eliciting a giggle from the girl. "It's a lot of work, so I think I might find myself coming back down here. Y'know, seeing as you happen to be here, too."

"Well, I do work here." She said, almost purring at me. "And I definitely wouldn't mind it if you, like, came over to visit more often."

"I'll consider it then." I offered one of my shots, though she refused.

 **She can't drink on the job, Ross. That should be obvious.**

"Right, you're on the clock, my bad." I apologized immediately.

"It's fine, maybe we—" She was cut off by something that caught her attention behind me. "Sorry, cutie, I gotta go." She started walking off.

"Alright." I shrugged, she had already left my vicinity as I said, "See you later, Melanie." I downed the rest of my shots in rapid succession. I could feel a bit of the buzz coming up this time, so I decided to call for two more shots, paying 10 Lien to Junior, who seemed quite happy with having a well-paying customer from me.

I looked to see Ruby had joined Weiss at her table, and Blake was somehow convinced to join her blonde partner on the dance floor. I decided to take my two shots and bring them with me over to Weiss and Ruby's table, sitting down between them.

"How's the night going for you two?" I asked. Weiss huffed, much to Ruby's light laughter.

"She's been annoyed by a bunch of guys trying to hit on her." Ruby explained. Apparently, that whole debacle had been going on for a while.

"Did you bring those shots in to tell me to 'lighten up?'" Weiss rolled her eyes as she asked.

"No, because I know that's a pretty common flirting tactic for many guys." I explained. "These are for me." I downed the two remaining shots with ease, though Weiss looked at me with concern.

"How many drinks have you had tonight?" The Schnee heiress asked.

"Ten Earl Grey Vodka shots." I answered, after counting the total on my hands. I leaned back briefly for a goon to pick up my empty glasses. Ruby and Weiss looked at me, incredulous. "I'm fine, I promise. I've had worse."

"You'd definitely beat Yang in a drink-off, then." Ruby seemed to nod, impressed with my act.

"Are you sure you'll be alright, Ross?" Weiss asked, genuine concern still present on her face.

"Ye—" A dude with a smug expression started walking toward Weiss from behind her.

 _He's planning on taking her by surprise. She won't like that._

 **Maybe we could defuse the situation and save Weiss from this one.**

 _And give off the idea that we may be flirting with Weiss?_

 **It's us or them, Shift. Ross, your move?** I took a risk and put my hand on top of Weiss, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"Don't move yet." I said. "There's a guy right behind you who's coming up to hit on you. Just fake laugh and keep your eyes on me until I say so." She nodded ever so slightly.

As the approaching dude saw the situation, he pulled away. To him, and Ruby, Weiss and I were holding hands. The heiress was now lightly giggling at something I didn't say and was looking intently back into my eyes. I could just make out the silhouette of the disappointed fellow cursing and turning back to a group of more rowdy-looking boys. I nodded and lifted my hand off of Weiss'.

"W-what was that?" Ruby's face was a bright red. "What did you two just do?"

"There was a hooligan attempting to try to flirt with me." Weiss explained, a blush still present on her face. "Ross took measures to make it look like I was already occupied with someone."

"Sorry to take those measures," I shrugged. "But some guys just won't take the hint unless they see a solid reason to stop."

"And I truly… appreciate it." Weiss said, and I waved her off dismissively. After that, the three of us took to small talk about classes and exams. Blake joined us after a few minutes, followed by an exhausted looking Yang. We had been there for about a little less than an hour and a half. I felt a little upset at myself because I was the only one of us who had actually drank alcohol that night, though I feel that the night off didn't go wrong in any way.

This weekend would bring up a lot of spars and new revelations that I wouldn't necessarily like. I don't think I'd ever be prepared for what happens.

 **(Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the story. Things well definitely be kicking off pretty soon, so stay tuned!)**


	7. Where We Stand

I fell to the grass backwards. I had been running at full-sprint around Beacon Academy as part of my personal training. Despite how well Shift and Stoic were with their own fighting styles, they weren't me. They didn't have my one annoying weakness: asthma.

 _Well, if anything, you ran for a lot longer this time!_ Shift, the naturally faster of the three of us, cheered me on every time.

 **You've made quite a bit of progress in terms of stamina.** Stoic noted. **You should be able to keep up with Jaune at this point.**

"That's… good." I said between deep breaths. My chest was burning already and yet I had just remembered that I had scheduled spar with the very same swordsman and his partner, because they wanted to test a strategy that they had. I sat up in preparation to stand, but a wave of mild nausea stopped me from doing so. Suddenly, I heard approaching steps in the grass behind me. "Ruby? That you again?"

I laid back down again to see that it was indeed the little reaper herself, holding a small, brown bag in her hands. I raised my eyebrows in a nonverbal question towards the bag, to which she opened it and offered me a cookie.

"Can't move… Ruby." I said, still recovering from my routine weekend workout. "Too tired."

That didn't seem to be a problem for her; she just dangled the cookie just over my mouth and dropped it into my mouth when I opened it. It was still somewhat warm, so I assumed she had just made it. Seeing as I really didn't want to spend more personal energy, I handed my body off to Shift. He would appreciate the cookie more.

 _Heyo, Ruby!_ Shift sat up immediately, energetic and happily munching away at the cookie. I was very glad for the soft couch and salty snack of popcorn instead of cookies. Not that I didn't mind, I just was craving popcorn at the time.

"Where does this popcorn keep coming from, anyway?" I asked, turning to Stoic.

 **No clue. It's just always here and never empties.** Stoic shrugged as Shift and Ruby enjoyed their impromptu cookie picnic.

"What's it like when I sleep?" I asked, the question had been bothering me for a while, though it hadn't exactly come up. They couldn't read my thoughts, they were just embodiments of other parts of my soul.

 **Well, that's around the time we get to sleep as well.** Stoic explained. **I'm quite glad the couch is also a pull-out queen-sized bed.**

"Convenient." I noted, watching Ruby and Shift rise and start walking back into Beacon. After All, Pyrrha wished specifically to fight Shift, not me. For what reason, I did not know. What I did know, is that I needed to knock out and rest up my Aura.

 **. . . . .**

 _Tell her… it was a god-damned… honor!_ Shift exclaimed from within my mind.

"Shift says it was an honor for him to be so thoroughly destroyed in battle by you." I redirected the message to the Mistrali championess.

"Oh…" Pyrrha let out a nervous laugh. "Thank you, I suppose. Shift fought hard as well. Are you ready for your fight against Jaune?"

"As I'll ever be." I shrugged, patting my leather pads to make sure they were secured onto my wrists and shins. I gripped Isolator carefully as I made my way to the sparring ring, where Jaune was already performing some testing swings. Jaune was just as inexperienced as he was in the show, but his practice with Pyrrha seemed to really to prove useful. "You ready, Jaune?"

"Yup!" Jaune smiled as he answered. "You?"

"I guess." I held Isolator in the proper grip in anticipation. "And I promise I won't switch on you."

"You better not!" He warned jokingly. We looked to Pyrrha to count off the match. She held an open hand, allowing the digital monitor above us to gather our Aura levels and other data. With that, she counted down.

"Three!" I bent my knees, and Jaune stepped back, allowing his shield to directly face me. "Two!" My trigger finger was just outside the loop, but I hadn't looked down my scope yet. Jaune swiped his sword behind him, a telltale sign of a charge, according to Pyrrha's training. "One, begin!"

Jaune charged with shield up while I stood firm and peered into the scope. I fired, and the bullet hit its mark onto an obvious target: his back leg. Doing so caused Jaune to trip and roll forward with his momentum. Upon coming out of his roll, he slashed at me, pushing me back as I switched Isolator into its machine gun form. Before I could fire and spray, Jaune had already lunged at me and forced me to use my weapon to deflect the blade away; Pyrrha and Ruby were both kind enough to help me learn that part. However, the force of the subsequent blows were enough to notch into my Aura.

 **Wait for an opening, Ross.** Stoic reminded. **There'll eventually be an opening for you to strike.**

 _Maybe tire him out?_ Shift suggested, but I mentally rejected that; my earlier exercise showed that I would most likely buckle out of exhaustion first before Jaune tired out from attacking. I sprayed some bullets non-discriminately, forcing Jaune to step back and allowing me some breathing space.

A beat passed as Jaune charged again, but I was ready this time. I once again deflected Crocea Mors with Isolator and stepped into Jaune's radius. If there was one thing that I was confident about, it was that Jaune's training kept to just fighting with just a sword and shield. While Jaune may have been training with Pyrrha in terms of stances and techniques for swordfighting, but I took a gamble here to try and fight with what feels like my advantage: martial arts.

Once I minimized the distance between us, I dropped my gun and clenched my fists together and took a step forward so that I was parallel to his shield arm. I lunged into Jaune, making sure my elbow was going straight under his chest piece.

"Gahk!" Jaune obviously didn't expect the hit, and was forced back. Jaune would've won easily after that if he just hopped back and charged with his sword. Instead, he stumbled back and left a wide opening for me to pounce and strike several more times; a punch to his gut led to a low kick to the side of his knee, causing him to buckle. Now, with a much greater opening and with Jaune off-balance, I lunged once more and wrapped my hands at the back of Jaune's neck, our proximity caused the blonde swordsman's eyes to widen in a panic. I used my newfound leverage and pulled Jaune in as I lifted my knee.

 ** _Ouch._** Stoic and Shift winced in unison as my knee collided forcefully with Jaune's face and the latter was sent flying back to where he was first standing. As he slowly recovered and made to get to his feet. I rolled over to where Isolator lay and clicked it back into its rifle mode and aimed down its sights. Jaune looked up to see me pull my trigger and hit him dead on in the gut once again, and a loud alarm sounded right after.

"Jaune has hit the Aura limit!" Weiss announced. "The winner is Ross!" A mix of cheers and applause came from our small audience of the two teams. I approached Jaune and helped him to his feet; he didn't seem to be hurt too badly.

"Looks like you've got this one." Jaune admitted with a smile.

"I can't exactly brag." I shrugged. "The record is 1-and-4, in your favor." I've been improving my combat skills rather slowly, but I'm glad I managed to at least beat Jaune once.

 _I seriously can't believe we kept losing to Jaune. JAUNE, OF ALL PEOPLE!_ Shift was definitely ecstatic about the spar's results.

 **Well, we had to basically relearn a lot of Tae Kwon Do techniques from memory, and even then Ross's body is a bit out of shape from back then.** Stoic said. **Add that along with some quick thinking and improvising, then you get that interesting knee attack Ross pulled. Congrats on the win, Ross.**

"And it seems that Jaune will need to brush up on defending against a quicker martial arts user." Pyrrha concluded, putting a hand on her partner's shoulder. "Ren, your thoughts?"

"Absolutely." Ren smiled as he nodded at me in a subtle gesture of congratulations.

"What now?" Ruby asked. We had already gone through the agenda of sparring for the day, and it was still about 3 in the afternoon.

"Well, I was thinking about going into the city." I answered. "I need to go pick something up, if they have it down there."

"I've nothing else to do," Weiss said.

"Of course _you_ wouldn't," Yang teased, which was responded with a glyph-based shove across the room.

"I'd also like to join, Ross." Blake spoke up. "I need some new reading material."

"Looking for more smut?" Her partner continued to tease from across the room, brushing off some of the wall… only to be slammed back into the wall by another glyph.

"Thank you, Weiss." The cat Faunus laughed softly. "Well, Ross?"

"Will you need to change?" I said, latching Isolator into its sheath, a holster that acted like a small backpack. Besides that, I looked rather typical of a Hunter trainee. Blake and Weiss both wore their normal outfits, and they seemed okay with that as their shook their heads after some minor deliberation.

 **. . . . .**

We had just gotten out of the book store with about six newly purchased books, only two of which were to be mine. I had also secretly inquired about any local publishing services nearby, in hopes to find some way to make some extra money on the side. It's not like I could let my Creative Writing major-experience go to waste here! It was probably the most important thing that I had motivation for back home. Now, with a functioning laptop back in my room, along with some fiction books for reference and a way to hopefully get my works published, I could probably find a comfortable life if being a Hunter doesn't pan out as well.

Weiss actually made to stop at briefly at a Dust 'Til Dawn store, and since I didn't exactly need anything from inside said building, I voted to stay and wait for the two girls just outside the door.

 _You'd think being the heiress of a Dust company she's have instant access to the stuff._ Shift said.

 **Don't you remember the start of Volume 3?** Stoic answered before I could. **She's doing her best to avoid her father, why would she tap into her own family's vaults when she can develop her own independence as Weiss, not a Schnee.**

"Well said, Stoic." I noted lowly. I hoped no one passing by heard me talking to myself. I brought out my Scroll to make it seem like I was partially speaking into it as I typed things. I have to give Stoic a lot of credit; a lot of what I write sounds like it could be said straight from Stoic.

 _Make Stoic your designated dramatic reader!_ Shift suggested. I entertained the idea in my head, as it was an amusing one. The door next to me opened once more as Weiss and Blake exited with more bags, presumably holding a decent amount of Dust, as they needed several boxes.

"I'm quite glad I don't rely on Dust rounds and stuff," I joked. "I don't know if I could personally afford continuously buying the stuff every time."

"Well, it would certainly help if you did." Weiss noted. "There may be opponent, like myself, who specialize in Dust."

"Unless that Dust allows them to feel no pain when I either shoot them, Shift slashes them, or Stoic slams into them," I listed off my group's varied attacks. "Then I don't think I'll have a problem."

"I suppose," Weiss took my rather barbaric-sounding defense into contemplation, before allowing Blake's behavior to get to her. "Blake, is something wrong? You've been quite… distracted by something."

 _Aaaand this is where the paranoia peaks, right?_ Shift asked. I recalled how Blake had spoken to Ozpin at some point in Volume Two, but had no idea when to place it in recent events.

"I'm just… a little nervous." Blake answered. "We've been assigned to our first mission, and we're supposed to be shadowing a professional Huntsman.

 **Or it could be that, Shift.** Stoic said.

 _She could also be lying._ Shift argued. _Don't you remember how she was until Yang had to talk sense into her before the dance?_ Stoic offered nothing in return as I heard Weiss' Scroll go off; it was apparently a message from Yang.

"Team meeting," The heiress read aloud. "Final touches on tomorrow's dance."

"Sorry Ross," Blake turned to me with a sad smile, though she seemed quite relieved. "Do you mind?"

"Nah, go ahead." I assured the two. "I think I'll pick up something else before I head back."

With that, I watched the two girls walk back to the Bullhead port, which was farther up from where we were. Turning around to walk again, I decided to find the place the bookshop told me was a good place for people who wanted to publish their work. That search led me to a small park that was filled with benches and a pretty fountain in the middle of the block. Upon sitting down, a random thought came to mind: tomorrow's dance meant the first relevant moment of Cinder's plan that we had seen.

 _We need to stop her._ Shift said, as my eyes began to wander. There were already a good amount of students in visiting schools' uniforms already walking around the city. _We really need to make a difference here, we're the only one's who know what's gonna happen!_

"You make it sound like I'm just going to sit here and let it happen, Shift." I muttered. "I just don't think I can handle it on my own."

 **You have the two of us**. Stoic said.

"That's not what I meant." I said. "There's three of us, yes, but we only come one at a time. If we were an entire team, then we'd be able to make much more of a difference."

 **I… see.** Stoic said. **What's your plan then?** **Cinder will be infiltrating tomorrow night, and we're nowhere near in the best shape to fight her then.**

 _What if… we don't fight them directly?_ Shift suggested. _We know what's gonna happen, so why don't we just fight from within?_

"With what connections, Shift?" I asked. "We've got no resources, and we can't exactly go to Ozpin without being involved with the whole mess and added responsibility of fighting with them."

 **So… you want to fight, but not fight?** Stoic asked, confused.

"I'll fight for them, I don't have to necessarily fight with them." I clarified. "We're not strong enough to fight Cinder and her group head-on. Especially with the big-guns on their side not being in play here yet."

 _So, the plan…?_ Shift inquired.

"We get to Cinder." I stated simply, looking around to make sure no one was listening in on me. "We need to keep her in our sights as much as possible tomorrow night."

 **I guess we can think of a more developed plan later.** Stoic said.

 _Sounds…. Good I guess._ Shift relented. _I don't have a better plan, to be honest._

"Alright then." I said, rising up from my seat and gathering my purchased goods. "Project: Cinder Falls is a go!"

 **(Author's Note: Heyo, BleachCadelina here! I'd just like to say thank you to all who've been reading; I never thought this story would get this kind of attention and following. And things are just starting to get exciting!**

 **I also wanted to use this chapter to let y'all know where Ross personally stands in terms of combat. Wherein: Ross is weaker than Jaune, Stoic is about on the level as Yang, and Shift is much weaker than Pyrrha. That last one shouldn't be such a surprise, though.**

 **See you all next update! Let me know what you think in the reviews, and I might respond to it in the next chapter!)**


	8. Flirting with Demons

I was still seated in the park when I heard a set of footsteps approaching me from behind. Seeing as I was pretty sure Weiss and Blake had already made their way back to Beacon, there were only a few people that this stranger might be.

 **Their steps are a little heavy,** Stoic noted. **A guy?**

Shift seemed to agree. but only let out a primal growl as the approaching person decided to sit down next to me.

"This seat taken?" Mercury Black asked, as if we didn't have a rocky meeting. I nodded, watching him carefully as he offered a hand to shake. "I'm Mercury Black, by the way. Which one are you right now?"

"What?" I asked as I shook hands with one of my enemies.

"Y'know," Mercury gestured at my entire body before continuing. "You got three of you, right?"

"Oh, I'm Ross." I answered. I allowed an awkward silence to come between us.

 _He's here for a reason, Ross._ Shift said. _I don't trust him at all._

 **You did pretty much reveal that we knew what she's doing, Shift.** Stoic reminded. **Most likely, he's here to get a little friendly and get information on us. What's the plan, Ross?** I thought about it for a moment, before turning back to Mercury.

"What's it like, then?" He asked, before I could say something. "Having three in one body?"

"Mentally? Annoying." I answered truthfully. I wasn't surprised he knew; a lot of students "Physically, it's pretty damn helpful to switch and recover and have someone else fight for me for a while."

 _Now ask him about his legs._

"How about you?" I asked, with my intention being to throw him off onto a false trail. "Y'know, with metal legs, and all." A cold pause followed by an even colder glare from the silver-haired boy almost made me regret me asking him about it.

"How do you know about that?" He didn't look like he was about to pounce me for outing that little secret, but there was also a very good chance that Cinder and Emerald were listening in as well.

"Let's just say... that I can tell very well what you are capable of." I said, doing my best not to stutter.

"Oh yeah, what's that then?" He asked, now with a casual tone. He seemed amused.

"Your athletic ability alone is much better than my constantly injured self." I began to list off. "Even if I switch to another persona, it takes us a sec for us to be fully ready to fight. You're too quick for that."

I saw Mercury smirk, as though I was just letting him know how to beat me. I don't think he knew i was just trying to skew his mind away from how I knew about his little secret.

"That seems about right." He quipped with confidence. "You are pretty slow with that gun of yours. You can fight, but I'm pretty sure I can take you, easy."

"Yeah, probably." I held out a fist for him to bump. "So, we alright?"

"Yeah, we're good." Mercury nodded, bumping my fist with his own. "So, what's been going on on your side?"

"Not much," I admit. "Just training as usual. Other than that, life's pretty boring as a one-man team in Beacon."

"You seeing anyone?" He asked.

"I don't swing that way, if you're the one asking." I laughed as he shook his head. "No, I'm not exactly looking for right now."

"What about that upcoming dance?" He brought up.

 _Why would Cinder need to know that?_ Shift asked.

 **Targets.** Stoic explained. **If she can gain any leverage over us by way of taking out anyone particularly close to us, then she can see a weakness if we choose to directly oppose her.**

 _The closest things to that are RWBY and JNPR, and they can surely take care of themselves._ Shift said.

 **And we're going to try hard to make sure they stay close to us**.

"I dunno." I shrugged. Though, I did have an idea of how to stop Cinder from doing what she needed to do. I decided to play on something he said earlier in Volume 2 of the show. "I think Emerald would definitely want to go with you, though."

"Yeah?" He asked. "You think so?"

"Yeah, man." Hoping he'd take the bait; he'd end up dancing with her anyway. This was to check to see if the other two was listening in. "She totally wants you, man."

"I keep telling her th— agh!" Mercury winced, though it didn't catch me off guard. He tried to play it off as a random head pain, but I knew that Emerald most likely did something to his earpiece that caused him pain. "Sorry, been having random migraines all day. Back to the dance, though."

"What of it?" I asked.

"You thinking of asking anyone?" He queried. "You're always around those two teams that're like, eighty percent female."

"Nah." That was true. That wasn't the plan from the start. "None of them are really my type. Might try asking someone from outside of Beacon."

 _Step One: Establish plan and give plan away to someone who can potentially ruin the plan._ Shift mocked.

"Is Cinder thinking of going with anyone?" I asked.

 _Ross, what the fuck are you doing?_ Shift's tone was a panicked one. _You're supposed to behead the enemy, not bed them!_

 **We… won't be doing the latter of that choice, will we Ross?** I mentally clarified to the two that it was all part of the plan to make sure Cinder doesn't have such a success at the CCT.

"I don't think she has anyone for the dance, no." Mercury was surprised that I asked about his boss. "Why her?"

"She's a looker." I said plainly. "Her little hair-over-the-eye thing helps with everything, to be honest. Plus, her voice? Velvety."

"You sound smitten." Mercury laughed. I shook my head.

"Nah." I shrugged. "Just admiring what's there and hoping. Just a hopeless bystander."

"What f I told you she wouldn't mind speaking to you first?" Mercury asked after he finished laughing.

"What?" Now it was my turn to be confused. The silver haired kicker pointed with his thumb to somewhere behind the bench. Turning around, I found myself a little surprised to see that Cinder was actually standing there.

"So, Ross, was it?" Cinder asked, as she shifted her weight from one foot to another. She was wearing her outfit from the Vytal Tournament episodes. She looked quite attractive in it in person. "What was that about accompanying me to the dance?"

"You don't have to say yes," I said, trying once again not to stutter. "See it.. as my way of apologizing for such a rough first meeting."

"Oh, yes." Cinder rolled her eyes. "Something alone the lines of keeping a dragon in a mountain?"

"Not my best attempt at a pickup line, I must admit." I quickly retorted.

"You were a bit hostile." She noted.

"I blame my other personas for escalating the situation so unnecessarily." I said.

 _Ooh, so smooth sounding._ Shift complimented. _Complicated sounding words for a complicated lass_.

 **She might enjoy the well-worded flirting.** Stoic said. **Putting that English-writing ability to use, I suppose.**

"Hmm…" The golden-eyed woman seemed to coo as she looked me over. She walked around the bench to stand face to face with me; I was only a little taller, and heels on her would make our heights just about even. "Give me a color."

"Black." I instantly resorted to my favorite color. She seemed to smile at that.

"Good." She gave a small smile, almost a smirk. "Then I believe you should start finding a suit to complement my all-black dress quite soon, no?"

 _That's a yes!_ Shift cheered. _I honestly don't know if should be excited for this or not._

 **Neither do I, but if this is part of the plan you have, Ross, then I hope you don't get too distracted.**

"Well, the two of us must return to Beacon before it gets late." Cinder said, causing Mercury to stand up briskly. "Will you be accompanying us to the Bullhead station?"

"Like you said," I waved the notion off. "I have to find a black-themed ensemble that could ever dare to complement such a ravishing young woman such as yourself."

"So first you're poor with words and now you're a sort of poet?" Cinder mused. "You are _quite_ an interesting person, Ross." With that, the two walked off. I made sure to watch them go into the distance before leaving the park and finding the nearest clothing store. It took another 2 hours to find a decently priced suit that matched what I remembered about Cinder's own outfit from the show.

Tomorrow would be part one of the plan. I didn't know how I would be able to stop her from heading over to the CCT, but I'd have to think of something quick. I needed to get something that gave me an edge.

As if by divine coincidence, something in a nearby window of a weapons shop caught my eye.

 _Now that… that will definitely come in handy._ Shift giggled as we approached the store. Oh yes, it will definitely be of great help. Somehow.

 **(Author's Note: Hello all! BleachCadelina here with another update for this story. Just wanted to thank you all for following and favoriting the story, and for reading the story in general!**

 **I'm really glad this story is getting the attention it is, and would love to hear from the audience a little more, so don't be afraid to leave a review. Both compliments and criticisms are very welcome.**

 **Once again, thanks for reading! See y'all next update!)**


	9. Dancing With a Devil

**(Author's Note: Hello! BleachCadelina here with an update before Finals officially start destroying my writing mind. Just wanted to step in and say thank you to all of you for reading, fave-ing and following this story! It makes me feel really happy to see this story doing so well. I'm no Coeur, Lefou, SSCyndaquil, etc, so I'm eternally grateful that you're following this story when there are so many better-written fics under RWBY.**

 **Please, leave a review/comment below on your thoughts so far, and I'll try to respond to them in the next update!)**

"Looking _good_ , Ross!" Yang wolf-whistled. She, along with the men of Team JNPR had joined me in my room. Seeing as the latter two didn't have any other close male friends, I decided that we got ready together in my room so that the girls could prepare with ease. Yang was just here because we needed a girl's opinion. "All black, and a little bit of velvet on the trim? Even a bit of gold for accents? Your date must be really lucky to have you."

I shrugged at her enthusiasm; I knew how to dance, but I never really went to any school dances. What's the point of being an introverted wallflower if I actually tried to experience things I knew I wouldn't enjoy?

"You're looking rather spiffy yourself, Jaune." Yang looked over the other blonde in the room. "The Dark blue really works with you. And the red for Ren, too!"

"Thanks, Yang." JNPR's leader said, sounding unsure. Before Yang could say anything further, her Scroll buzzed with a notification.

"Sorry, boys." She apologized. "Duty calls. See you tonight, 'kay?" She left the rhetorical question to hang as she left my room.

"You have a date?" Jaune asked. "You've literally been here for only two, three weeks tops!"

"I didn't ask anyone from Beacon, if that's what you're wondering." I clarified. "What about you? Did Weiss turn you down? Or Pyrrha?"

"Nah." Jaune's face turned expectedly sour at my question. I remember how the events heading up to the dance went. "She'd much rather go for Neptune, which is perfectly fine. And I'm _sure_ Pyrrha, being a famous champion from Mistral, will have someone much more… impressive to go to the dance with.

 _I wanna hit him_.

 **As do I.** As much as I did as well, I had to contain a laugh as Ren rolled his eyes and silently face-palmed behind his leader.

"And, of course, you'll be with Nora, right?" I asked the normally green clad ninja. "As if you two were to be separable."

"I mean, you guys are already so close," Jaune joked. "You should definitely be dating by now!" Ren and I took Jaune's hysterical laughing as our chance to look at each other with a mutual understanding and shared a look that would often be found in "The Office."

"Yes, I'll be accompanying Nora to the dance." Ren said as Jaune recovered. "And you, Ross?"

"Her name's Cinder," I answered. "She's from Haven."

"Well, I wish you both the best for tonight then." His subtle undertone wasn't lost on me, especially since he was now wearing a small smirk. He departed with a wave and politely closed the door behind him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaune asked. "You're the one with a date, Ross."

"Just a thought," I tried to subtly suggest something that should happen no matter what. "You should talk to Pyrrha during the dance. You never know what might happen."

"As in?" The dense, _dense_ _as the core of a neutron star_ , blonde asked.

"You come to an understanding that strengthens your bond." I stated as plainly as possible. Jaune simply shrugged.

"If you say so, Ross." Jaune said, looking himself over and firmly nodding to himself in satisfaction. "I think I'm ready for tonight. See ya later, Ross!"

With that, I was left alone with my thoughts. And Shift and Stoic.

 _So, do you mind on going over the plan again?_

"Well, Cinder never really started out in the dance, did she?" I asked.

 **No, she officially entered after her infiltration at the CCT.** Stoic reminded. **Ruby followed after for some reason, I think Ironwood had been leaving.**

 _Then, she sees that there's trouble over at the CCT._

"My best bet is that Cinder is 'unavailable' when we're to meet her at the dance, which is our cue."

 **Tell Mercury to make sure Cinder calls us when she gets there.** Stoic said. **Establish the alibi that I had forgotten something in my room, then we hope to get up to the infiltration place before she does.**

 _I hope this works, guys._ I turned to Isolator, and decided to try out a trick of mine that we've been working on; switching weapons without switching personas. I focused my Aura into my hands as I held my rifle. It took a while, and I was sweating lightly afterward and suffering from a mild headache, but it was done. I had somehow made it so that I had tricked the weapon into thinking it would be used by Shift, and not me. Ire Fangs felt light in my hands.

 _Why did you have to go through hours and hours of migraines and aspirin for this part?_ Shift asked. _Why not just switch to one of us?_

"Calling for our locker out of nowhere may alert Mercury and Emerald to what I might be doing, and cause Cinder to be more wary of me in the future." I said. I thought about any other reasons. "How did my clothes feel on you when we first changed Shift?" I asked.

 _A little baggy, but manageable_.

"Stoic?" I ask the serious counterpart.

 **Tighter, but not too restraining.**

"Exactly." I said. "While these aren't too bad, the problem is the minute detail of having tight or baggy clothing can cost us. After this plan, we need to find something flexible and comfortable for all three of us."

 _Please, no Spandex_. Shift pleaded. I agreed with that statement.

I turned to the empty television screen to check that my tie was straight and tweaked the rest of my suit jacket a bit. I never received a dress-suit ensemble from Beacon like Jaune and Ren, which is why I had to buy one anyway. I looked at the clock: about fifteen minutes to 8 o'clock. I pushed Twin Ire up my sleeves, where I had the shop's tailor fashion some secret sheathes so I didn't cut into my own aura before any confrontation with Cinder. Checking that my weapons were indeed hidden and not obvious from the outside, I did a quick Princess-twirl in the mirror and promptly left to pick up my date. However, before I left, I remembered to grab my recently purchased tool and stash it in my pocket.

It was quite a walk to the visiting students' dorm, as there were many of them already heading down with their own dates. Several students from Beacon that passed my way look at me weirdly as I walked to the other wing, as if I was doing something absolutely foreign to them. I checked my Scroll upon reaching the section of the foreign students, as Cinder had sent me her room number earlier today.

 _Fifty bucks says she isn't there_. Shift said.

 **Wasn't the major idea that she wasn't going to be there?** Stoic asked.

 _It's just a phrase, Stoic._ Shift sighed. _Buzzkill, gotta slay the fun every time. This time it was before the fun even started._

"Shift." I rolled my eyes, but smiled as I walked up to the designated door. "Relax. We're here." After knocking on the door, I did my best to act surprised to see Mercury open the door instead of Cinder.

"Oh, hey Ross." Mercury looked back into the room with a glance, possibly to Emerald. "Uh, bad luck buddy, Cinder had to make an emergency stop in the city. The dress ended up being a size too long, or something like that."

"'Something like that?" I repeated. Mercury may have been a good liar, but he wasn't exactly a good actor.

"She used a bunch of fashion terms I didn't understand." He said. "Girl stuff. She said she'd join you at the dance, though."

"Ah well," I said, acting disappointed. "I was hoping to walk her down and be all romantic and shit."

"As all smooth romantics do," Mercury nodded.

"If she finishes early, let her know that she can meet me by the punch or whatever." I lied. "Have fun with Emerald down there. And _down there_." I added, which prompted something hard to be flung at Mercury's head from out of my view.

 _Sorry, not sorry_.

I walked away from the visitors' wing and made my way out of Beacon proper and over to the grand hall in which the dance was being held. It was still somewhat light out, so I felt hat Cinder wouldn't have made her plan go on for a while; a black dress leaving the dance would be a little too obvious in the remaining daylight. I kept watching by the punch bowl as I had promised, until I saw the familiar two teams approach me.

"Where's your date, Ross?" Yang asked with a sad smile. "Got stood up?"

"Nah," I shook my head. "She had to get to the city and get some last-second fixes to her outfit. She'll be coming in later tonight."

"Aw, alright." Yang said, as she returned to her post at the welcoming podium. Weiss, unsurprisingly went to a seat along, as Neptune never really did accept her accompaniment. Blake stood by Yang, which would most likely lead to the time where she starts dancing with both her blonde partner and then Sun. Jaune and Ruby stood together at the other side of the punch bowl, while Pyrrha disappeared. Ren and Nora went to sit down somewhere else.

"Cheers to the anti-social club!" I heard the two team leaders laugh and clink glasses. I smirked because I'd normally join them, but seeing as I did have a date, I wouldn't be tonight. The night came quickly after that, and I found Emerald and Mercury walking in arm-in-arm. Though the former was doing her best to look like she wasn't hating her position. I walked up to them.

"Sorry, Ross." Emerald said. "She said the repair's taking a lot longer than necessary. She might not come until much later."

"Aw, that's… unfortunate." I did my best to look truly downtrodden. "I'm just gonna head back into the dorms. Forgot some stuff in my room."

"Alright, man." Mercury nodded. "See ya."

"Have fun, you two!" I waved back at them as I jogged back into Beacon, but took a sharp turn once I saw that the two underlings weren't watching me as I departed from the party hall.

 **They'll be too focused on watching for any authorities, like Ironwood leaving the party.** As if on cue, I saw a familiar figure standing on a balcony on the second floor, their red ensemble a dead giveaway. Then, a second figure approached them.

 _Hey, Jaune's finally approaching Pyrrha!_ Shift cheered. _Enjoy it while you can, Arkos!_

 **So, that means we're really experiencing what happens in the show.** Stoic noted. **No wonder you're so confident in this plan.**

Making sure that I still had my tool in my pocket, I approached the CCT tower on the side of the tower opposite of the entrance. I could just make out the form of Cinder bounding over buildings to get to the entrance. Looking back at the party, I saw that Ruby had indeed exited was just noticing the older woman sneaking around.

 _We need to be quick about this plan, guys._ Shift hissed.

With that, I took out my new tool and pointed it upwards. A thin cable was launched from a small hole and flew at a high speed until it met a certain target with a soft _clang_! I tugged on the tool once and I began to steadily ascend. A few thwacks and an elevator ringing alerted me to Cinder making her way into and up the CCT. I tugged on my tool once again, prompting it to ascend faster. It wasn't long until I was face to face with a vent I easily unscrewed with Shift's daggers and let myself into the computer room Cinder would enter. Taking a second to breath, I sat down in one of the swivel chairs at the desk, putting my feet up.

 _Speaking of the bitch…_

Shift's prediction was spot on, as the elevator doors opened to reveal the black skinsuit wearing villainess entering the room. I could only imagine her surprise to see me sitting there, with a small smile on my face.

"Wow, Cinder." I faux-complimented her. "Those are some interesting changes to your supposed dress."

"What… are you doing here?" Her voice held some hesitation, but was nonetheless smooth in its delivery.

"You know, I could ask you the same thing, Cinder." I said. I rose from my seat and stared pacing. "Maybe because I got lost and found myself here when I was looking for extra restrooms." She began pacing the opposite way; we were circling each other now. "Maybe… I'm not actually here. Someone may have placed a custom hologram instead of the normal receptionist." Her golden eyes narrowed. I took a breath before adding the last option. "Or, I'm here to make sure you don't plug in your Scroll and infiltrate the CCT, along with Atlas Military's systems, and bring an entire invasion of Grimm during the Vytal Festival as per your orders."

Cinder froze. I could just see her eyes behind her mask. She was unsure how to proceed from here. That thought was immediately banished once she summoned her black blades out of seemingly nowhere.

"How do you know this?" She asked. I, alone, stood between her and the main computer. "Who are you, Ross Ramsey?"

"I'm just…" I took a moment to think of a good way to describe myself without giving anything away. "An observer with rather _shifty_ tendencies."

 _Ooh, audience! He did the thing! He did the thing!_ Shift cheered. I, to this day, have no clue what he was talking about.

Then, she lunged at me, blades swinging and moving at speeds I couldn't match. I could only go so long as to deflect her strikes. At one point, our blades kept each other in check, though she was beginning to win the stalemate. I kicked her in the side, causing her to move back when _ding!_ Ruby stepped into the fray, Crescent Rose drawn in its fully reaper-splendor.

"Ross?" Her call-out caught me off guard, as I didn't notice the arrow shot at my feet until it exploded, causing me to be blasted back. "Ross, no!"

I could barely hear steel clashing against steel past the ringing in my head from the explosion. Ruby was basically a prodigy, but she wouldn't be able to "defeat" Cinder for another Volume!

 **Where's Ironwood?** Stoic asked. This wasn't going the way I remembered it, either. **It shouldn't be long until –**

 ** _BOOM!_** Three arrows exploded in Ruby's face sending her flying in the completely opposite direction of her weapon. Cinder seemed to forget I was even there, as she sauntered over to the main computer and pulled out her Scroll, ready to infiltrate and steal date: big mistake. She flinched hard as I threw on of Twin Ire right on the mark and knocked the Scroll out of her hand, sending it skidding off somewhere else. Before either of us could act, the youngest of the combatants flew out of nowhere in a charge… was caught by the neck with a harsh "Guack!" which was followed by being thrown to the ground in front of her.

"Ruby!" I shouted, rising to my feet, but it felt like time was slowing down for me; the cold feeling was growing and growing within. Ruby wasn't ready for this kind of fight yet. This fight should have been over already!

 ** _We can't let this happen!_** The two voices inside my head yelled together.

Then… something snapped as I watched one of Cinder's arrows fly into Ruby's shoulder, shattering her Aura immediately. Time slowed down even more as Cinder notched another arrow.

"NO!" I willed myself to move, was suddenly sent flying back… back into a familiar couch between both Shift and Stoic.

 _Ross?_ Shift asked, bewildered. _How?_

 **If we're all in here…** Stoic began, staring at the perspective, which was even taller than Stoic's. **Who's out there?**

We watched as Cinder was pushed back greatly by some dark force. I could just barely notice a slight red tint to the edge of this persona's perspective; that's not a good sign. I watched both in awe and horror as black energies seemed to slam into Cinder repeatedly. I couldn't describe what I felt at the moment other than… cold. It wasn't long until Cinder finally found some room for herself and bailed by diving out of the window. Then, the new persona's vision shifted to the injured Ruby, who was looking at me in fear.

 _Whoa…_ Shift said, mouth agape. _What the fuck is this?_

"R-Ross?" She asked, sheepishly. Her silver eyes widened in fear. "Shift? Stoic? Is that you?"

Finally, at the worst timing possible, the elevator doors opened to reveal Ironwood. I couldn't even try to take control of the body again. The General saw me standing by the downed Ruby and pulled out his trademark pistol and lunged at me.

I could feel a tugging from this new persona, as if it were asking me for permission.

"No." I said. "Don't move. Just… take it."

True to its word, the new perspective simply roared in pain as the Atlesian general shot round after round at him. My eyes began to fall heavy as more shots pounded, getting louder with each shot. My last conscious thought was Ruby's yell for Ironwood to stop shooting as I felt my body fall into darkness.


	10. Awoken to the Sound of Steel

"Good morning," These were the first words that greeted me. Ozpin's gaze wasn't necessarily cold, but it was calculating. I was in the infirmary, yet again. "You've been sleeping for quite a while, Mr. Ramsey."

 _Is it morning already?_ Shift yawned. Then he realized our situation. _Oh, unamused Ozpin. Not good._

 **We have a problem.** Stoic notified.

 _What's tha—oh._ Shift apparently noticed as well. _We have a guest._

 **There's a new character seated on the couch.** Stoic said. **Black hair, red and gold eyes, heterochromia.**

 _He's also a small one,_ Shift said. _A few inches shorter than me. Hey there, little guy?_

 **He also seems to not be able to speak.**

"Are you alright, Mr. Ramsey?" Ozpin asked. "You've been rather quiet. Still in shock maybe?"

"N-no, that's not it." I assured, trying to make sense of this new development. "Just… doing some internal deliberations on an issue."

"Would that issue happen to be why General Ironwood found you standing over an injured Ruby Rose?" Ozpin's eyes narrowed. He would not be having any of my sass. "Would any of your other personas be able to answer for you?"

 _Nope, not right now._ Shift answered hurriedly.

 **Trying to better understand our new visitor.**

"They can't." I answered the Headmaster. It took me a while to notice Goodwitch was right behind her.

"Then you tell us," Goodwitch stepped forward, her heels clicking on the infirmary floor. "Why were you up there in the first place?"

 **Be passive.** Stoic said. **Don't give it all away, we still don't have a full plan for everything else.**

 _No, we're here._ Shift countered. _New guy included,_ _we can tell them what's coming._

 **They'll be skeptical of us,** Stoic retorted. **I don't think they'll believe us outright.**

 _Ross_ , Shift called to me. _Your call, buddy. We're still trying to learn about the new kid._

"I…," I looked to the Headmaster and his Deputy, who looked upon me with rather impatient visages. "I was trying to prevent something from happening."

"So you know of some sort of plot going on?" A new voice entered the space. The tall, broad General Ironwood stood over by the end of my bed, hands behind his back. "And you didn't think to tell the authorities of your suspicions."

"They aren't suspicions." I cut him off. "I _know_ that something is going to happen."

"And how is that possible?" Ozpin asked.

 **Better now than never.** Stoic said.

 _Also, new kid has stayed quiet this entire time._ Shift added. _It's like… he's waiting for something_.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I said, testing the waters.

"Try us." Goodwitch rolled her eyes. The Atlesian General and Beacon Headmaster waited for me to say something.

"I'm not… exactly from around here." I finally said. "Where I'm from…. You could call me an observer."

"Observer?" Goodwitch repeated. The other two in the audience simply listened. "In what way?"

 _Ah fuck it,_ Shift sighed. _Just tell 'em._

"Where I'm from, you're all nothing but characters in a show." I confess. "I'm actually quite a fan of it."

"R-ridiculous." Ironwood refuted. "Atlas's scientists have been working on dimensional shifts along those lines for decades. You're making this up."

"I must agree." Goodwitch said. "While I can't disprove you, it's quite a ridiculous claim to say you come from a world outside of this and 'observe' us."

"If I tell you things that I shouldn't know, then would you believe me?" I asked.

"I don't see what you can accomplish through that, but sure." Ironwood spoke for them, clearly very skeptical of my claims.

 _Alright, let's start with Volume One!_ Shift announced.

"Professor Ozpin," The mentioned Headmaster tilted his head slightly as I looked to him first. "Your first words to Miss Rose were, 'Ruby Rose, you have silver eyes,' which is a pretty awkward way to catch someone off guard after Goodwitch told her that she would send Ruby home with a 'pat on the back and a slap on the wrist.' A little extreme, don't you think?" The deputy Headmistress simply looked back at me, confusion evident on her face; no one else was in that room, there was no way I should have known that unless…

"Miss Rose may have easily told you that herself," Ironwood said. "She has been seen to be quite open and friendly to people."

"Speaking of friendly, General," I brought up my next piece of ammunition. "Penny is quite an impressive project. A shame you won't let her out on the field, seeing as she's encountered Team RWBY already on several accounts. A robot with an Aura, an impressive feat that is… defeated upon the Vytal Tournaments."

 _Ah shit, don't remind me._ Shift said. _Ruby was crying, MurderofBirds was crying, so many people were crying._

 **We were crying.**

 _That's not the point I was looking for, thanks Stoic_. Ignoring that little exchange, I saw that Ironwood's gaze was incredulous yet again, but moreso in the context that I should not know such confidential information.

"You've been quiet, Ozpin." The General said.

"I'm… still not sure if you're telling the truth or not." Ozpin said. "This Penny character may have also come up to you and spoken about that, even without the conjecture of her performance in the Vytal Festival."

"It's a founded conjecture that I'd like to fix and avoid completely." I said.

"Nonetheless," Goodwitch stood by the bespectacled man. "You haven't given us substantial evidence that you are indeed an outsider with such information." That was true, I suppose. What could help me convince them?

 _Hit them with Volume 3 and 4,_ Shift said. _The hard, serious shit_.

"I've got maybe… two things that could shake you, then." I said. "Since you're so confident, Professor Ozpin."

"Go on." He responded with calculating eyes.

"It's rather unfortunate that Amber, the Fall Maiden, has been rendered to such a state, isn't it?" I brought out the Volume 3 bullet. "You need, and already have in mind, a candidate to replace her and take her Maiden powers down in that vault here, right?"

"How do you—!" I cut off Goodwitch's question to turn to Ozpin once more with the last blow, hoping that the guess was correct.

"Am I wrong, Oscar?" I looked straight into Ozpin's eyes as I said that, expecting a much more visual reaction. Instead, he just sighed.

"So, you are what you claim." Ozpin relented. "What can you tell us about what you've been trying to avoid for this world?"

"First, how tight is the security on the CCT while it's being fixed and whatnot?" I asked Ironwood.

"I have about thirty armed soldiers guarding the entrance." He answered.

"Good," I nodded. "The infiltrator that night easily got past the maybe… seven guards you placed last night. You need to prioritize security around those buildings."

"Why is that?" He asked.

"The CCT was the reason why the infiltrator and her team were able to hack into your systems, and take down the greatest threat against their plot: the Atlesian army." I said plainly. "You're welcome."

"I… suppose I do owe you thanks for that." The General said. "What else is there to know?"

"These infiltrators, who have entered Beacon under the guise of Haven students, are the same ones responsible for Amber's condition." I reported. That really got their attention.

 **Better just put all the chips on the table.**

"Do you know their names?" Ozpin asked.

"I don't know what false names they're using," I admitted. "But their real names are Mercury Black, Emerald Sustrai, and Cinder Fall. There's a fourth with them, Roman Torchwick's sidekick, but she doesn't exactly make herself seen or known until later."

"If we gave you pictures of the Haven students that entered, could you identify them?" Glynda asked as she tapped her tablet screen.

"Easily." I nodded in assurance. Suddenly, I remembered something. "How's Ruby, anyway?"

"Miss Rose made a quick recovery," Ozpin announced, much to my relief. "Thankfully, whatever you did was able to throw off that infiltrator. She's currently on her first mission with her team."

 _Good to know we stopped Cinder in the nick of time!_ Shift cheered. _Oh! New kid nodded!_

 **Was... was that fighting your doing, little one?** Stoic asked. **It seems we have indeed found the one with the ability to combat Cinder.**

 _More like… hopefully we have some range coverage?_ Shift offered. _We just have to go and see what you can do, kid._

"Is there anything else you can tell us right now, Ross?" Ozpin asked, sincerity and concern evident in his tone.

 **We exposed Cinder and her original plan, but there's no telling what the new plan may be.** Stoic's point was good. Now that Cinder knows that I know her plan, she must be making rapid changes to make sure the desired result still occurs during Vytal.

"All I know is…" This was more of me talking than anything else. "The Vytal Tournament is a prime target, and is supposed to be when it all goes down. Double your tech-security by as much as you can."

A beat passed until I remembered what Ozpin said.

"Wait, you said Team RWBY was on their first mission?" I asked.

"Yes." Goodwitch was concerned now.

"To the southeast with Professor Oobleck?" I asked. Ozpin nodded.

"They left yesterday, and should still be there right now." Ozpin answered. "Why?"

"We need to get to the city, _now!"_ I declared, looking down to check that I was still wearing my suit from the dance. "Where's my gear?"

"Here." The infirmary nurse had stepped in out of nowhere to give me a bag containing Twin Ire and the rest of my fighting garb. I jumped out of the bed and steadily began removing them from the bag and prepared to get ready for the incoming crash. "Be careful."

"Miss Goodwitch, you will accompany Mr. Ramsey to the city." Ozpin said. "Ironwood and I will maintain and develop new security precautions in the meantime. Ross," The Headmaster called to me as he made to leave. "If anything else comes up, don't you dare think to hesitate to tell me in the future. Now that you also know what's at stake, you are given responsibility for what happens, too."

"I'll let you get ready, seeing as you're feeling fit to go." Goodwitch said, preparing the step out. "Seeing as you sound very urgent about this matter in the city, I'd change quickly." I nodded and got ready quick.

 **. . . . .**

I held on to the handles within the Bullhead to see that the city below Beacon was already experiencing the events known as "The Breach" in Volume Two. Teams RWBY and JNPR could already be seen taking down some Grimm, and Jaune had just recently taken down an Ursa on his own.

 _Yeah!_ Shift cheered. _There you go Jaune!_

"We're jumping off, Ross." Goodwitch stated calmly, as the Bullhead began to slow to a hover above a street. I looked down at how far the jump was.

"I'm not good with heights." I said. As if to answer, Goodwitch simply raised her riding crop.

"Before we do though, Mister Ramsey, I do have a question." She asked, looking all the ready for single-handedly repelling Grimm and saving the city square. "How old are you, really? Ozpin knows you lied when you first told him."

"Oh." That was random. Yeah, I had lied, but simply because I just wanted to make it easier to fit in with the other students at Beacon. "I turned 21 last June, actually."

"Interesting." She noted flatly. "Let's be off, now." With that, I jumped off the Bullhead's bay and felt my body slow down immensely and come to a soft landing. It was like Glynda knew I wouldn't be able to make a safe landing without sacrificing some Aura. The same intimidating blonde handed me what looked like a small red gun.

"Emergency flare." She explained simply. "If anything seemingly important happens, don't hesitate to use it." I nodded and watched her depart with a determined strut to begin fixing the area.

 _Let's go kick some ass!_ Shift cheered and I looked around at the situation. JNPR was dealing well with the Grimm, and RWBY was faring well in the same right. Team CFVY made their awesome cameo, taking down the Deathstalker and Nevermore with ease. I looked around for another certain group, but was somewhat happy and disappointed at the absence of Cinder's team's cameo.

 **It wouldn't make sense to come out and expose themselves after you most likely outed their identities and plans.** Stoic pointed out. I shrugged and went on to join the fight. I watched as Jaune quickly got pushed back, and noticed that Pyrrha was a little too far from her partner to help.

 _That's our cue!_ Shift yelled, and as we were still a bit far away, I switched to the knife wielder so as to reach the blonde swordsman. Upon reaching him, Shift lunged at the Creep Grimm about to pounce on Jaune from his rear. Twin Ire were easily plunged into the dark flesh, and Jaune finally noticed Shift. Then, I looked to the new character next to me on the couch.

He was indeed shorter than me, but was nonetheless… unnerving. His black hair was as dark as Raven Branwen's, and his heterochromatic eyes caught me off guard; red and gold were already uncommon eye colors for me, so to see this up close was even more off-putting. The little one held my gaze, but sid nothing.

 **He's said nothing this entire time.** Stoic said. **But I have an idea as to why he's here.**

"What's that?" I asked.

 **The last feeling you had on the plane was one of expressing hate, multiple times,** the halberd-wielder said. **And you were feeling some extreme feeling of anger when Cinder was set on firing on the downed Ruby.**

"And?" I urged for a conclusion.

 **As I am your persona of logic and order, and Shift is your persona of creativity and energy,** Stoic explained. **This one is your persona of… hate or anger. At the very least, rage.**

"And he's just been dormant this entire time?" I asked, putting a hand against this new persona's forehead; he was ice cold. He blinked once then sort of… nuzzled into my hand. "You're like a cat."

 **He takes order, from what we remember of the night.** Stoic noted. **Rage is a rather… primal emotion.**

"So what should we name him?" I asked. At that, the new persona stood up off of the couch, turning to me with a curious tilt of the head. Standing also revealed a new development: a tail.

"We have a Faunus persona!" I announced.

 _Really?"_ Shift asked from outside. _That's cool, little guy. Anything for a name yet?_ I looked to the screen to check how Shift was faring. He was currently back to back with Jaune as they sliced any Grimm that headed their way, and nothing seemed to be wrong. _No sight of Cinder and her team, though. Goodwitch just passed by, too, doing her thing._

"A name?" I pondered.

 **Funnily enough, now that we have four "members," we technically have a complete team.** Stoic remarked with a small smile, examining the Faunus persona's tail. **Ross, Shift, Stoic, and… what then?**

I looked down at my newest counterpart. His heterochromatic eyes blinked as his gaze remained on me, as if waiting for an order. It was almost like naming a pet. A very dangerous, intelligent pet.

"Nox." I offer. The unnamed persona tilts his head uncertainly.

 _Wow._ Shift commented from outside. _That's not cliché for such an OC._

"Shut up, Shift." I said. At this, the new kid turned to the screen and flipped it off. "Hah!"

 **He's more of an impulse than just rage or any solid theme of emotion, it seems.** Stoic noted jovially. **A bit against the grain compared to the three of us.**

"Against the grain…" I hummed. "How about Thresh?" The silent persona seemed to like that, as he stood at attention. "Then it's done. Welcome to the party, Thresh!"

Thresh sat down between me and Stoic again, now holding the popcorn bucket and snacking from it.

 _Should we test him out right now?_ Shift said. _The Grimm are starting to thin out now._

 **I'd rather wait for a more controlled environment.** Stoic suggested, and I agreed. Whatever Thresh did that night seemed a bit… extreme to try out in a crowd of both enemies and allies. The dummies in Beacon Academy should suffice for testing.

"Was there any sign of involvement from Cinder's team?" I asked Shift.

 _Nothing._ He said. _All yours now, Railen._

I stretched my back a little as I gazed around the situation; There were a few Grimm still standing her and there, but pretty much everything was about to clear up until—

"Torchwick." I simply stated, bringing up Isolator's scope and scanning the far reaches of the scene. Not too far from the crater that the trainer had exploded out of, was the orange-haired, white trenchcoat-wearing thief, doing his best to scramble away unnoticed among the rubble. I turned to the blonde swordsman next to me. "Hold the fort, Jaune. I'm gotta do something important."

"Gotcha, Ross!" He affirmed proudly as he continued to defend himself quite well against a lone Creep. "Get going, then!"

I looked down the sights at the slowly retreating Torchwick, and once I established the shot's drop, I fired. _BANG!_ The notorious Dust thief dropped quick, as his earlier fight with Blake and crash through the ground had definitely taken a lot of Aura out of him. As an individual near the level of a certified Hunter, though, he still had enough Aura to spare. My shot was just enough to rattle his head and knock him to the ground. Upon reaching his downed body, an unexpected figure popped up between us: Neo!

"Fuck, you look cute in person." I blurted out. Neo tilted her head, confused at my outburst.

 _Smooth._

 **… Why?**

Thresh, as he does, said nothing.

Neo collected herself and lunged at me with a flurry of kicks and swipes with her parasol. I could only hope to deflect them all; they weren't fatal strikes, she was just pushing me back from him.

 _Sorry, favorite character,_ Shift sighed. _Can't let you get in the way._

I quickly switch Isolator to its automatic fire mode, spraying and successfully pushing her away from, and putting even more distance between me and her partner.

"Listen, Neo." My use of her name caused her to stop; she must not have gotten Cinder's memo. "I'm trying to do something that saves Remnant here and involves both you and Roman surviving past the Vytal Festival." Her heterochromatic eyes widened.

"Then, what's that kid?" Gray Haddock's voice came from one of the most stylish villains I've ever seen, let alone encountered personally. Torchwick had recovered enough to stand and point the business end of Melodic Cudgel at me. "Recent talks from above tell me you shouldn't know what the lady's doing, and yet, here you are talking about plans that have barely started."

"You don't wanna get swallowed by a Griffon atop a soon-to-crash Bullhead, do you, Roman?" I asked, my gun pointing to the floor. If Neo wished to take me down, she could have, if it weren't for her partner's hand signaling her to wait.

"Of course not." He snorted. "What does that have—"

"Let's just say, if I hadn't intervened against Cinder at the CCT," I said. "You would have died like that and Neo would have been left slowly falling through a sky full of hungry Griffins. And I don't think you would like that, would you?" Roman's eyes narrowed for a bit before he lowered his weapon. Neo seemed to relax, too.

"I'm listening." Torchwick said, his tone even.

"Let me arrest you." The moment I proposed it, Roman became immediately apprehensive. "I've already told Ozpin and Ironwood what I know, so they could trust me enough to interact with and through you."

"What's the point?" The ginger haired Dust thief asked. "Where the end-zone, kid? I don't see a possibly good outcome here. I get charged with accessory, you get hailed as a hero."

"That's where you're wrong." I stated, smiling. Profit was always important to thieves. "Helping us stop Cinder not only saves your life, but you'll probably be rewarded and left alone for a good while."

"That's… not a bad idea." He mulled. "Anything else?"

"Sanity of the masses in terms of, y'know, saving the world." I shrugged. A moment passed; the sounds of Nora's explosions and bullets flying through the air were the backround to Roman's contemplation.

"I'll join you cause then," He shrugged, lowering Melodic Cudgel all the way before dropping it and raising his hands. "On one condition."

"Yeah?" I asked, hoping it wasn't too unreasonable.

"Neo needs a place to stay, seeing as the police would case my place after you arrest me." Roman stated. "You got room anywhere?"

"I'm staying at Beacon… so…" I don't know if I had the individual power to convince Ozpin and Glynda to allow a criminal like Neo anywhere near Yang, let alone other Beacon students.

"She won't be caught." He waved dismissively. "You got your own suite?"

"Yeah." I didn't have another bed though.

"Then you've got a couch. Neo won't mind." He said. To confirm this, Neo nodded and gave me a thumbs up. "She'll entertain herself as well, seeing as she likes being in the city more."

"I'll… keep that in mind." I said, reaching for my flare and firing it. I watched as it's red tail followed straight from the point at which I shot. "It'll be a pleasure working with you, Roman."

"Let's hope so." He said, as I watched Glyda approaching my position from afar with a few Atlesian soldiers following me. Neo had seemingly disappeared in the meantime; I'd most likely be meeting up with her eventually.

As the soldiers apprehended Torchwick, I looked to Goodwitch. Having caught her attention, I called her closer to me.

"What's wrong, Ross?" She asked, sounding concerned with what I had to say.

"I'll need to have access to working with Torchwick." I said. "Make sure Ironwood does so. Torchwick is an important component to Cinder and Salem's plans." The blonde Deputy Headmistress nodded.

"You have a plan in motion, then?" She asked.

"Only as far as I know." I said, shrugging. "I've basically changed the events of something that definitely happens. I don't know what could stem from what I've managed to cause to alter. In short… I'm gonna be winging it."

Glynda didn't seem happy about that statement. I didn't care. I was just happy I was done with Volume 2. Now, I had to see what Volume 3 and the Vytal Festival brings. I had the semblance of an idea that could help us, but it was yet to compare to the grand horror that could still happen in the coming months.

 **[(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Finals are done, and I managed to write a bit of a large development(?) chapter. So, we got a new team member, and we got another ally against Cinder for Remnant's survival... hopefully.**

 **Again, thank you, thank you all soooo much for the love (follows and favorites) that y'all are giving this story. Working and thinking on it is a lot of fun, and it makes me feel happy knowing that there's a substantial audience enjoying it.**

 **Please, don't be shy to leave a comment or leave a review of your thoughts or reactions to the story (pls, it motivates me to create more). You never know just when this story's tone will change, or when it ends! I'm writing it all as I go, so we're all on a ride together to see exactly what happens.**

 **See y'all next chapter!]**


	11. Let's Get Down to Business

**(Author's Note: Heyo all, BleachCadelina here with another update for this story. I don't know when I'll have a decent amount of free time to work on this story in the future, seeing as I just got a job, then with school starting in a month. I'll do my best to update my stories, hopefully. Thanks for reading as usual, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **FeartheGhostKing: I'm not too sure of official ships for Ross just yet, but I always tend to play favorites for Neo. I mean, look at her!**

 **FIREKING217: I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! I don't have any personal plans as to how long this story will be, but I plan on keeping it going for a good while.**

 **Guest: A bit rude there, buddy? Not exactly "constructive criticism" either. I appreciate all opinions, but saying something like that about something I have fun making for free doesn't help me improve on my habits as a writer. This project isn't even that serious for me, so you might want to tone down the rudeness for a bit.**

 **Anyway, on to the story!)**

I was currently in awe of what I was watching. We had been testing Thresh's abilities for quite some time now. His ability to gain some sort of shroud of dark energy and manipulate it was astounding! He pushed and pulled with it, and sometimes even shot it at several dummies, knocking them flat or completely destroying them.

 _This is cool_. Shift nodded beside me. _He's like… the Dust user between us, except with not-Dust._

 **Simply put, Shift,** Stoic began. **Thresh is using energy from Ross's negative emotions and attack with some sort of extended Aura.**

 _Then knowing you Ross,_ Shift nudged me with an elbow. _That's a LOT of energy._

"Fuck off, Shift." I rolled my eyes as continued to observe Thresh's abilities; he could jump higher and use this dark energy to propel himself off surfaces to dodge and block blows and projectiles. While he wasn't as fast as Shift was, he was much stronger. The only downside was that he got exhausted too easily, and the dark energy would retreat into him. While Thresh was still a small, agile target, it was obvious that he put a lot of effort into controlling it. It was like an overactive Aura of sorts.

"Alright, Thresh, that's it for now." I called out to him. "Let's switch for now." I saw the perspective's nod, and willed myself to change back. Upon regaining the perspective, I saw that I wasn't alone.

"Oh, so that's the Grimm that saved me that night in the CCT?" Ruby approached with a curious smile. "He's a lot smaller than I thought!"

"Thresh isn't a Grimm, but yeah. He's also only got a short fuse for fighting." I said. "I'll be saving him for more serious situations. What's up, Ruby?"

"Well, I was actually wondering what you were doing for the holiday break?" The little reaper asked. I simply tilted my head. "Oh, right! You're not exactly from here."

I never told her and the rest of the teams the truth, I just kept up the alibi of having been from far away and somehow landed in Beacon's backyard. How convenient.

 _At least we won over Blake!_ Shift cheered.

 **I'm quite glad things went down the way they did.** Stoic added. **We have a lot of training and planning ahead of us.**

"Are you gonna stay here to train for the Vytal Festival?" She asked. I shook my head.

"I don't exactly have a team to get me through the first two rounds, do I?" I asked rhetorically.

"You can join my team!" She answered immediately, at which I laughed.

 _Oh Ruby, what kind of self-insert fanfiction do you think this is?_ Shift laughed as well. I mentally rolled my eyes at his remark, though.

"Ruby, Goodwitch personally told me my Semblance was unfair to have in the tournament, anyway." I explained. "It'd be 4-on-1, then 2-on-1, then 1-on-4. It's totally broken."

 **It's also to give us time to watch over the tournament to keep an eye on any unwelcome guests.** Stoic said.

 _Yeah, we still don't have a plan for that._ Shift pointed out.

 **We'll get there when we get there**. Stoic answered.

"Aw, sorry to hear that." Ruby pouted, before putting on a determined face. "But I better see you cheering us on when we fight!"

"You say that like I have a choice!" I joked. It had definitely been fun watching both Teams RWBY and JNPR develop in person. "You girls definitely have a fan in me!"

 _Wow, way to sound like an NPC, Ross._ Shift joked. I ignored his remark to hear what Ruby had to say.

"Well, Yang and I are headed home to Patch, and I know both Weiss and Blake will be staying at Beacon to keep up their studies, which does sound pretty lame." The little reaper listed off. "Jaune told me Team JNPR's gonna be training nonstop for Vytal. What about you?"

"Probably a mix of both." I lied. I needed to talk to Ironwood and Torchwick as soon as possible. Some ideas to help repel Grimm from Atlas would be nice. Torchwick might not have known much about the total villains' plans, but he must have heard something about it.

 _A little extra team training for us never hurt._ Shift suggested.

"Oh, that's cool, I guess." Ruby tried to sound excited about my choice.

"It's really not, but I don't exactly have anywhere else to go." I said. Before I could think of more excuses, I received a text notification on my Scroll. Taking it out and reading it to myself, I looked back to Ruby, who looked slightly curious. I covered it up by saying, "Goodwitch wants to talk to me about something from class. I'll see you later, Ruby. Have a nice break."

"You too, Ross." With that, she left hurriedly, probably to catch up to Yang.

 **. . . . .**

"You want to _what_?" Ironwood asked, incredulous.

"You heard me." I said. "We need to remove Roman Torchwick from your airship. And then, I need to talk to him about what he knows about Cinder's plans."

"You're asking me to release a known dangerous criminal from custody." The General said.

"I'm asking to get him off that ship; it's part of the downfall during Vytal." I said. "Torchwick plays a very important part in a small, yet important part of the plan."

"I… Dust damn it." Ironwood sighed. "I honestly have no reason to doubt you."

"So, you'll do as I ask?" I said, feeling a smile rise to my face.

"Yes," He relented. "But his new quarters will be secluded in Beacon and must be under surveillance at all times."

"That's… reasonable." I replied.

 **Makes sense.** Stoic piped in. **He is still a notorious thief.**

 _True._ Shift said. _But we need him if our plan's gonna work_

"We'll move him to suitable quarters within Ozpin's permissions." Ironwood informed. "Then we'll let you know when you can talk to him."

"Alright." I relent. "I really appreciate your cooperation with this. I know my side of the story sounds really suspect."

"Like I said, Mr. Ramsey," Ironwood spoke as he parted ways with me. "I have no reason to doubt you after what you proved. Just pull your weight to stop what you claim to know is coming and we'll be just fine."

I sighed before turning around to head back to my own dorm room. The walk back and elevator ride to my floor was quiet, but my mind was racing. Shift and Stoic were also thinking of ideas that would help increase the likelihood of survival of as many people as possible during Vytal.

 **They'll be meeting before Vytal, at least.** Stoic reminded. **We can tell what we remember then.**

 _Oh, I really wish we had our phone now!_ Shift said. _We could watch the show and catch up on what happens!_

 **While it wouldn't exactly get reception,** Stoic said. **I don't think it's that grim of a disadvanta—**

"Grimm!" I realized at that moment one of the scenes I hated the most about Volume 3's last episode; the two lone Atlas soldiers fending off against the invading Grimm. "Ironwood needs to place a lot of emphasis on the borders against the Grimm. And to make sure no aircraft are allowed to land if they're not carrying students or Vytal supplies."

 _Heh, "vytal" supplies, get it?_ Shift snickered at the accidental pun.

 **Not now, Shift.** I simply nodded and smiled in a minor mental victory that could lead to a great impact against those forces.

"Adam Taurus needs to be taken out of the picture." I said. "He needs to be made more of a priority."

I opened the door to my room to see a not-too-unexpected sight; Neo was reclined on my couch, watching TV tranquilly with a bowl of ice cream in my hand.

 _Ah, an iconic sight to see of the beloved best-girl of RWBY._ Shift admired.

 **I… don't disagree.** Stoic said.

 _With which statement?_ Shift asked the serious persona. _The sight, the icon-status, or the best-girl?_

 **Yes.**

"Well said, Stoic." I muttered as I shrugged off my uniform's suit jacket and draped it over a chair by my kitchen table. I turned to greet the bored woman. "Hello again, Neo." She simply responded with a limp wave, her attention completely on whatever show was on.

 _She's so cute_. I sighed at Shift's inclusion. _Don't show weakness, Ross_.

"You're just gonna stay here while I talk with Roman?" I asked. She nodded. "Do… you need anything?" After a moment of silent contemplation, she shook her head. Suddenly, another notification rang from my Scroll, this time from Ozpin himself.

"Torchwick has been moved at your discretion, please let me know when you'd like to speak with him."

-Ozpin

PS: I hope you know what you're doing with this one, Mister Ramsey.

 _Glad to know he has some faith in us._ Shift commented. I tapped 'Reply' under the message and typed back:

If it's alright with you, I'd like to speak to him later this evening, without a guard inside.

I sighed, seeing as my position was one still suspect to those who knew of my real story. Checking the time, I noticed there was still ample time in the day for meeting with Torchwick (5 PM). I pocketed my Scroll and turned once more to our guest before leaving.

"Alright Neo, I'm gonna head out to talk to Roman." As I turned to leave, I felt a small pressure at my back; a swift stab notified me that it was most likely Neo's umbrella. I attempted to defuse this situation by saying, "Look, I'm not doing this because I wanted to arrest him, I'm doing this because we need you _and_ Roman on our side to save Remnant." Taking a deep breath that I hoped she didn't notice, I turned to face the short, multi-colored assassin. I didn't need a typed-out message to be able to read what her face was threatening.

 _If we somehow mess this up and get her and Roman in more trouble…_ Shift spelled out.

 **There will be hell to pay.** Stoic finished.

"Neo," Again, my use of her name without her or Roman having told me caught her slightly off guard, her eyes flinched, but her stance held. "I promise you, I didn't have you and Roman stopped for personal gain. I need you both to make sure Remnant is saved and in the end, you'll be hailed as heroes. You won't have to steal or kill in order to survive after that. I promise, Roman will not be imprisoned for long."

My words didn't seem to sink in at first, but she eventually lowered her weapon before returning to my couch; I made sure not to watch her legs as she walked back, willing my own to turn my body around and leave the room.

 **. . . . .**

"You know what you're doing, I assume." Ozpin asked me as we stood outside a set of double doors. He had guided me to what seemed like the part of Beacon that was mainly offices for faculty and visitors. The only difference with this domicile was that there were two guard standing on opposite sides of the door, with two more standing opposite of them against the opposite wall.

"Yes." I said. "Torchwick isn't clued into the entire plan, but he was aware that his recent plans fueled Cinder and Salem's plans for Vale and Beacon. Anything he can tell us will be helpful."

"But…" Ozpin took the word out of my mouth.

"I need his trust first." I said. "I need to make sure he's telling me everything he knows, and truthfully." With that, Ironwood exited the room in front of us.

"He's all yours." The General stated. "Are you sure you don't want any security in there with you?"

"Positive." I said. With that, I walked past him and entered. There was a flash of light and then I was suddenly in a room alone, standing across Roman Torchwick himself, sitting at a metal table in the middle of the room.

 _This isn't an office_ … Shift noted.

 **It's an interrogation room.**

"Never knew they had rooms like this." I added aloud, which caught the redhead's attention. He scoffed lightly.

"Get enough detentions and you'll see this room more often than a teacher's office." Torchwick said. "That, and some shady smuggling stuff I used to get into here."

 **So, he confirms the fanon idea of having attended Beacon.**

"That's… interesting." I had no honest idea of how to respond to that.

"But let's get back to you, kid." Roman said, talking to me as if _he_ was the one asking questions here. "You know things, right?"

"Some things, yeah." I confirmed.

"And you say you know how I die and and other stuff you shouldn't." He said. "Prove it."

"How?" I said. "You already complied with my request by agreeing to be arrested and talking with me about the plans your employers lay out."

"Tell me things about me, or things about what I've done." The well-dressed criminal requested. I had to think for a moment.

"I don't have many specifics on you and Neo, to be honest." I said. "You aren't very well-explored from our perspective."

"Perspective?" Torchwick repeated, then suddenly remembered something. "Right, the good ol' General Ironwood told me you're from some world of 'observers,' and that's why you seem to know things." With that last statement, a memorable quote from Volume 2 entered my mind.

"You'll know what you need when you need to know it." My use of my enemy's quote caused Roman's eyes to narrow a bit. "That's what Cinder told you, when you asked what exactly all that stolen Dust was for, right? Right after you learned Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black had to do your job of dispatching a loose end in Tukson?" A tense silence followed.

"Anything else?" He asked after a few more moments of silent contemplation within both of us.

"It must have been so infuriating to see your white coat get all dirty when you got punched out of that Atlesian Paladin prototype you stole." I said. "Especially infuriating to be stopped by a bunch of first-years, as well."

"Ok, so you know a good amount of things only known by people who've worked with me." Torchwick said. "And yet, you've only been here less than a couple months, right?"

"That's about right." I affirmed.

"You think your pre-determined 'facts' are enough to save Remnant from what their plans are?" He asked, tilting his head and wearing a skeptical smirk. "From what I could gather, it's some pretty dangerous stuff, kid."

"Knowledge is power." I answered simply.

"But is it strong enough?" He countered.

"How deep into the entire operation were you, Roman?" I asked, wanting to get to the point of our meeting.

"Not as deep as I'd like." He harrumphed. "Cinder only delegated me to Dust heists, using borrowed help."

"Junior's men and the White Fang." I guessed. He nodded.

"Not the most capable kind of company I'd like to have, but the plans didn't exactly have me in charge of that anywhere." Torchwick said.

"And what was there for you to gain?" I asked. "What was the profit in aiding in a bid to destroy and take over all of Remnant?"

"Whoa, whoa, kid." Roman waved his arms out to stop me from continuing. "I know nothing about that stuff. I wasn't included in the world domination thing you and the other bigs keep talking about."

"Then what was the profit?" I asked. Torchwick took a moment to think before responding. "What's the point of joining up with this trio out of nowhere?"

"We were on a side that we felt couldn't lose." He answered. "And it took all that I can to work for them to make sure I could keep living the way I wanted. To get by how I wanted."

"Cheat, steal, and survive?" I asked, remembering his last words in Volume 3 before being eaten by a Griffon.

"That's how I do it, kid." He looked at me with a smirk, though the rest of his countenance was quite serious. "That stuff you said about me dying by being swallowed by a Griffon, is that correct?"

"Part of the plan was for you to get arrested and on Ironwood's ship." It took a while, but Torchwick nodded. "Then, Neo would sneak on in disguise, take out the crew and free you so you could take out the other Atlas ships watching over the Vytal Festival. Then, all hell breaks loose as Grimm and White Fang swarm Beacon and the festival grounds and attack everything. Despite being on their side, Roman, you end up being one of the unfortunate casualties."

"That's… a rather shitty way to die." He concluded.

"Indeed it is." I said, which both Shift and Stoic agreed it was a tragic and completely unexpected.

"Then what do you want from me, kid?" The criminal asked. "You already know my level of involvement with this whole 'evil master plan,' what do you expect to get from me?"

"Names, locations." I listed. "Specifically, a way to get to and take down Adam Taurus."

"It's gonna take a lot more _physical_ convincing to get him to stand aside." Torchwick countered. "From what I've heard, he doesn't have much of a choice."

 **He's right.** Stoic said. **Remember, Cinder managed to recruit Taurus and the White Fang after threatening them with her newly found Half-Maiden powers.**

"Just give me the information I need, and you still get to play a pivotal part in saving not only your own hides, but Remnant as well." I bargained. "You and Neo will be seen as accessories to the defense, rather than the attack, of Vale." Another bout of silence.

"How is she, by the way?" Roman asked in a calm tone. "Neo. Is she alright?"

"She's chilling in the living room of my dorm, like you said." I assured.

"Good." He said. "I'll help you and tell you what you need to know as best I can, just promise me something."

 ** _What?_** "What is it?" I asked. Money? More power and immunity post-defense of Vale?

"Keep her safe, no matter what." Roman requested. "Or you'll have hell to pay from me."

 _Wow, talk about a two-front attack from either side of the duo._ Shift said. _Scary either way, but understandable._

"Deal." I reached a hand out for the criminal to shake, and he reciprocated; his palm was cold, and I didn't even notice he wasn't even wearing handcuffs. "Welcome to the good side, Roman Torchwick."

"Don't push your luck, kid." He rolled his green eyes. "I'm not doing this for your happiness."

"Right." I sighed. "Now, tell me what you know about Adam Taurus."


End file.
